yago hortal.

Sometimes, old fondnesses demand recollection. Old thrills need revisiting. The true trial of a delight is not just it's momentary pleasure, but whether it draws you back after a stretch of time - like a forgotten spot by a favorite river.

Yago Hortal's extraordinary, heart-felt, head-spinning abstractions are just that very brand of delight. They trended around the world of trend-savvy sites for a period of months, passed from one to another like a great novel, exciting everyone. But I didn't hear much of Hortal after that.

I'm sure out there, somewhere, the world keeps turning and Yago keeps painting. I hope we hear from him soon. In the meantime, here's some fresh acknowledgement of a talent that continues to thrill.

Website here.


And an excellent interview with the man himself here.

k henderson.

Sweet, treats, and bric-a-brac abound in the illustive "K." Henderson's portfolio of photorealistic paintings, usually involving baked goods and outmoded childhood tchotchkies. An equally illusive website points the viewer towards "paintings with food", "paintings with toys", "paintings with stripes" and "more fun paintings".

Just try and pretend you're not intrigued.

Indulge yourself here.

alex katz at tate st ives.

If the notion of St. Ives invokes a heady vision of the British Colonial tropics, then you would join me in being slightly misguided, but not entirely wrong. St. Ives is a coastal town in northern Cornwall, home to a "clear blue ocean" and "sunlight flickering over the cottages and quays", as its romantic proponents put it. 

It's also home to the fourth (and most remote) leg of the Tate collection. And though it's no hop-skip-and-a-jump from the capital, these bleary eyed, warmth infused canvases from 1950s painter/print-maker Alex Katz might be worth the road trip.

Alex Katz at the Tate St. Ives is on until 23 September.

 

just a thought. [charles collins]

Collin's crustacean portrait, Lobster on a Delft Dish (1738), is perhaps my second favorite thing an artist has ever done with a lobster, surpased only by this, of course.

Accomplished, retrained, but just Baroque enough to be obscene. Bravo Charles.

just a thought. [bernard cohen]

"A storyteller and a creator of pictorial theatre", he calls himself. 

 Visit Bernard's website here.

michael cina.

 

Paint. Smear. Repeat.

Mr. Cina's work is here.

ballpoint pen paintings by shane mcadams.

Still my favorite work I found this week. Why do I love this so much? Their ability to simultaneously sooth and stoke my psyche is unnerving. I'm plagued by a burning desire to keep some around at all times, just because they make me happy, sort of like the way people turn whole walls of their bedrooms into aquariums. Maybe the key is in the title of the work - synthetic landscapes. It's that blend of the familiar and the surreal which so often makes the head spin and the mind wander.

Anyway, enjoy a more rational analysis here.

And a more in depth feature here.

www.shanemcadams.com 

all images ©  Shane McAdams