*daisy's plant food

I am in love with Joan

2010-09-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

Seriously.

Circus Ponies

2010-09-01T23:43:00.000-07:00

Found these while researching something else- love them! : D

Awesome napkin

2010-04-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

My friend posted this image to her facebook, so that's all I know about it. I love the retro design and aquatic sexy lady... I love the promise of a girl in a fishbowl! : D

Sascha Brastoff horses

2010-04-19T02:46:00.000-07:00

Images and text courtesy of Etsy seller Stylish Ribbons
"Pottery Artist, Sasha Brastoff lived and worked in L.A. after World War II and designed pottery and sculpture during the late 40's, 50's 60's and early 70's. He had a retail store in West L.A. during much of that time that was extremely popular. ... His whimsical, stylized horses are probably the most popular collectibles. "
More info on Sascha here!
I love the way he stylizes horses here- just gorgeous lines and forms!!!

Circus girls

2010-03-04T14:13:00.000-08:00

Argh! I can't remember where I found this awesome picture- I think it was a blog post about old theatres in LA; it's from a mural in an old movie house.

Anyway, SO gorgeous! I love the theme of circus girls on horses...

Bill Donovan

2009-05-05T01:42:00.000-07:00

Wow- love his simplicity in his strokes of ink/paint and his color sense. Great forms and sense of composition...

Bill Donovan

Vintage Deco Bridge Tallies

2009-03-18T17:34:00.000-07:00

I found these amazing vintage art deco bridge tallies featuring all sorts of cute girsl and flapperes from the 1920s on flickr. I love the super cute designs and colors- such eye candy! I really dig the art deco designs and the use of bright candy colors with this vaguely pin-up sort of feel.

From the flickr set: "They are diecut--cut along the edges. They have a score area on the opposite side--used for the game of bridge but during 1920s and 1930s - it was all the rage, apparently."

Flickr set- http://www.flickr.com/photos/picture-perfect-designs-jewelry/sets/72157613269398023/
(many thanks to flickr user finsby for uploading all these!!)

The Beautiful illustrations of Virginia Sterrett

2009-02-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

Just came across Virginia Sterrett's work, a dazzlingly talented female illustrator, and am just in love with her stuff. A contemporary of Kay Nielsen, she illustrated beautiful illustrations for a variety of picture books in the 1920s, including Tanglewood Tales, Old French Fairy Tales, and Arabian Nights.

She died remarkably young at only 31 of tuberculosis, and I found it so impressive to read her life story (especially being a female artist myself, working in California, like she did)- she was truly a talent- hope you find her as inspiring as I do! I love the way she handles the female form, the colors, the art deco lines, and the content (fairy tales, etc)

Biography
Flickr Set

EL HUERTO by Mik Baro

2009-02-17T16:53:00.000-08:00

Not clear on if this is a poster or an illustration from a book, but from what I can gather, it's an illustation of a child's dream (Dream by Lucía/ SPAIN.) (more info/ illustrations here and here ... via Drawn!)

I love it because of the horse theme, the bold colors, and striking beauty of the roots/nerves/blood system contrasting with the body and ground.

Hiroshi Yoshida- Japanese Woodcut

2009-02-11T01:23:00.000-08:00

Found this lovely postcard of Hiroshi Yoshida's woodcut "Kameido Bridge" from 1927 from a darling new little shop down in Echo Park (in Los Angeles) named Stories , which carries a wonderful selection of books, postcards, random little gifts, and has a small cafe inside.

Seriously cute little bookshop with a great selection of used and new books- I could have walked away with many armfuls of great reference/inspiration books that I'd just use to post to this blog all day, plus they had such a great selection of collections of short stories and just nice random LA stuff (cute retro dish towels, day of the dead stuff, etc). They do poetry readings and lots of events there too!

http://www.storiesla.com/

Anyway, I couldn't not buy this postcard because it was so beautiful- the colors, art deco architecture in the bridge, and delicate linework are just wonderful! Enjoy!

Audrey Kawasaki

2009-02-02T16:36:00.000-08:00

I think I have to officially thank my friend Arvin for turning me on to Audrey's work, although I had seen it before, it was going to get a print at her Thinkspace opening a few months ago that I got to see a full show of her work in person and up close.

As I've been painting more and more recently, and thinking about where I want to take my own art, I've been studying her style a lot more, and admiring her sense of color and the soft erotic nature of her female forms. I also love the way she works in animals into her pieces- it's very intimate and emotional in a very subtle but strong way.

http://www.audrey-kawasaki.com

Camilla d'Errico

2009-01-26T15:10:00.000-08:00

I've had a slow burning fascination with Camilla d'Errico's work- when I first saw her work profiled on Boing Boing, then in person at G1988 at the Crazy for Cult show, I liked it, but the more I see of her stuff, and the more I look at it, the more I really start to appreciate it more and more.

I really like her subject matter of juxtaposing girls and animals, her sugary-sweet color palette (strong but sweet and delicate at the same time), and the way the girls eyes pop out of the canvases is so arresting.

These are some of my favorite works of her, and some sampling of some of her beautiful color palettes. Check our her website (which has her blog, online store, and a bunch of links) here-

http://www.camilladerrico.com

Japanese watercolors

2009-01-09T23:20:00.000-08:00

Found these in a stationary store in Japantown, San Francisco

"Plovers" Shoko Uemura 1976

"Fawn," Shoko Kawasaki 1943

"Green Pond" Seiho Takeuchi, Early period Showa

Tsurutaro Kataoka, 1998

"Snow in Morning" Goun Nishimura 1922-25

Circus horse girls

2009-01-08T02:29:00.000-08:00

Was inspired to do a drawing about circus horseback riding girls, and came across some awesome reference pictures I HAD to share...

1908, people! I love it! (From Shorpy.com - great vintage photos )

Following two 1890 posters from http://www.imageenvision.com

From The Golden Circus by Kathryn Jackson, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen

(image from flickr )

Hadley Hutton

2009-01-06T02:27:00.000-08:00

I found Hadley Hutton's work via A Print a Day blog , and thought her stuff was really amazing. I love her blend of asian aesthetic (Japanese woodblock, floral motifs), nature (birds, plants) and especially her colors. Her medium of encaustic, gouache, and colored pencil really make the pieces seem shrouded in wispy cotton candy as well. The pieces are sweet but strong, and I found her stuff really inspiring.

Go check out her website and her Etsy store where she sells prints!

Eyvind Earle

2008-12-10T02:04:00.000-08:00

I wish there were more books of Evyind Earle's art out there- everything's out of print!

He was the art director for Disney's Sleeping Beauty, but also an accomplished mid-century artist/ illustrator.

Here's an interesting article about his work at Disney- apparently he wasn't so liked by the 9 Old Men, but Disney had faith in Earle's unusual and striking production design.

Cool street art

2008-12-08T01:37:00.000-08:00

I saw this street art in San Francisco back in September and thought it was so cute- totally guerrilla style on some construction plywood covering up some storefront.

Krista Huot

2008-10-02T01:18:00.000-07:00

Another amazing contemporary artist working in Los Angeles is Krista Huot, whose work I just became acquainted with at the Crazy for Cult 2 show at G1988 in August. I was so swept away by her Snowfall over Poppies painting, which was one of my favorites of the show.

Again, I love the fantastic fairy-tale like charm, yet there's still an undercurrent of darkness and foreboding in her works. The colors are so rich and warm, and the way she renders the female form (especially the eyes) I find myself emulating over and over again in my own work, because I admire it so much.

I really dig her recent series, which are portraits of plants as rendered as female forms, and she has some works that are very fairy tale-like (or in some cases, retellings of fairy tales, like Cinderella). Definitely an artist to check out!

Krista Huot's website
Flicker site

Snowfall over Poppies

Death of a Maiden

Hemlock

Trumpets of Datura

Sylvia Ji

2008-09-30T16:18:00.000-07:00

I just caught one of Sylvia Ji's paintings on the cover of an LA Weekly, and WOW. I'm just blown away by the beauty of her Dios de los Muertos paintings..

I love the feminine qualities (delicate yet sexy), the Day of the Dead references, the colors, and the gothic meets old west saloon girl qualities.

She's a contemporary LA artist- currently exhibits down at Corey Helford. Definitely worth keeping an eye on!

Article on Metromix
Corey Helford Gallery
Some pics on flickr

Marigold

Blue Rose

Dona Delarosa

Rosemary

Japanese Art Nouveau Postcards

2008-09-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

I came across this small collection of postcards for sale and was just amazed at some of the beautiful Art Nouveau Japanese images it featured... just the sense of design, color and composition all are things that caught my eye.

more links:
Art of the Japanese Postcard: MFA Boston
Curved line aesthetic in Japanese art
Assorted images

Umbrellas Viewed from Above
Takehisa Yumeji

Female Nude Seated in Water
1906, by Ichijô Narumi

Ducks Swimming Upstream

Uzaki Sumikazi

Woman with Umbrella
Ichijo Narumi

Peacock on a Wall

Wada Eisaku

Air and Water- Joel Meyerowitz

2008-09-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

Saw this article in the SF Gate and was impressed by this image- just like the way it's flipped upside down to play with up/down, the sense of space and shapes, and the surreal nature of the imagery.

"The Elements: Air/Water Part 1, Number 6" (2007), by Joel Meyerowitz

Mary Blair

2008-09-17T01:49:00.000-07:00

Of course, what self respecting animator-colorist can go without admiring the mad skills of the ever talented Mary Blair?

For those of you who don't know her, you should for many, many reasons. In a nutshell, she was a highly influential female artist who worked for Walt Disney on both legendary films and rides, as well as a prolific illustrator and artist of the mid 20th century.

These are just a small sampling of some of her pieces that I love. I really dig her color sense, the way she understands composition, and the way she handles simplifying shapes and forms. I also love the rough texture that shows through the simple shapes via the tempura paint medium.

Images graciously from Cartoon Modern and a wonderful collection of her images over on Flickr. There are also two illustrated books over on Amazon of her concept art from Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella.

Unnatural colors

2008-09-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

Was looking up some reference, and stumbled across this stunning photograph- I just love the colors, composition and stark composition. Also the contrast of unnatural vs. natural (pollution). Found at the We Can't Paint blog

Nickel Tailings No. 34, Sudbury, Ontario, 1996 by Ed Burtynsky

Kay Nielsen

2008-09-11T02:57:00.000-07:00

Kay Nielsen is another Golden Age Illustrator who did gorgeous fairy tale illustrations in the first part of the 20th century.

I love his drawings for a lot of the same reasons that I like Dulac (content, colors, and Art Nouveau style), but Nielsen brings in a slightly more Asian aesthetic- he was apparently influenced by Japanese woodprints and Hiroshige.

Asifa-Hollywood archives has some great scans of a variety of his work
Twelve Dancing Princesses
East of the Sun West of the Moon
Hansel and Gretel

Bruce Mozert's Underwater Photography

2008-09-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

Found this via Boing Boing and Smithsonian; some fantastic 1930s underwater photography by Bruce Mozert to help promote Silver Springs, Florida.

Love the surreal juxtapositions, cute girls/ pin-up qualities, and vintage / retro look.