Egon Schiele

The National Gallery currently has a major exhibition examining the central role portraiture played in early twentieth century Vienna, and due to the fact that I blatantly won't be able to get down to see it, as I have kids, I thought I'd post a few of my favourite Egon Schiele drawings.

It's Schiele's clean line work that has always drawn me to his work rather than subject matter or overall emotional impact. And it's something that is pretty clearly visible in my own work. His lines hold an incredible amount of intensity and nervous energy which give an enormous expressive energy to his drawings.

I find it quite humbling to think that Schiele created this incredible body of work before his death in 1918 as a result of the Spanish flu pandemic, at the age of twenty-eight... a couple of years younger than I am now.

The exhibition, Facing The Modern: The Portrait In Vienna 1900, will be on display until 12th January 2014.

Willem de Kooning

"I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art."

Willem de Kooning

Natalia Rak at Folk on the Street Art Festival, Poland

Here's a fantastic new mural by Polish artist and graphic designer Natalia Rak, painted at Folk on the Street Art Festival in Bialystok, Poland, depicting a young girl in traditional Polish dress watering the tree below. Simple, vibrant and massively effective.

Opening night of my solo show

Thank you to all the people who came out to The Regal Cinema on Saturday night for the opening of my new solo show. It genuinely meant a lot to me to see you guys there and to get a chance to talk to people in the real world about my work. Thank you for all your kind words... you're good people.

The show will be up for a while, so if anyone happens to be in the area then feel free to stop by and check it out. It covers two floors, both upstairs and downstairs and you could go and see a film too while you're there.

Sketches by Mike Mignola

Mike Mignola is easily one of my all time favourite artists. His utterly unique style not only perfectly complements the horror genre he writes about but has also influenced countless other artists across the world.

Everyone knows Hellboy. Especially since the movies came out and hit the box office. And every comic fan knows Mignola's work. But what I wanted to show here is a selection of his cool little sketches and studies of the beasts and demons that inhabit his world. I think these illustrate just how loose Mignola is naturally when not having to ink for a finished publication.

His website is here...

Adam Caldwell

Adam Caldwell's work combines heavy abstraction with classical figure painting. Beginning with the abstract background and then adding realistic details on top allowing the composition to develop more freely. His work reflects his reaction to social, moral and cultural issues, contrasting western motifs and symbols with those from around the world.

For more, visit his website...

Eroné

It's kind of hard to post about Amose one week without following up with Eroné the next. The two French artists share many common themes and interests. Although, Eroné's work is visually softer and has a more organic feel. The figures are more relaxed and the colour palette is reduced to earthy tones.

Like Amose, Eroné's characters are masked from ethnic and emotional description, but Eroné's figures have something of Amedeo Modigliani about them with their blank, haunting eyes. There is still, however, the visible influence of Southern American street art, like Os Gemeos.

For more, just go here...