by donald dusinberre imartsyfartsy@gmail.com
Tacos and art - two great tastes that go great together. This week, I visited the Burrito Gallery for some mahi tacos (possibly the best fish tacos this side of the Rio Grande) and happened to see some impressive works by two artists, Dan May and Sean Mahan. Although the choice of subject matter and color palettes used by May and Mahan differ greatly, they both have a sharp ability to draw the viewer into each painting’s story. Rarely does one find such impressive artistic skill outside a gallery or museum (or inside them, for that matter).
I also paid a visit to the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach, where I was treated to the drawings and prints of Donald Martin. He, too, is an artist who exhibits a degree of illustrative quality in his work, focusing primarily on landscapes and other scenes.
It’s always a pleasant surprise to discover interesting works of art in unexpected places, and I’ve always believed that it’s often more effective to take art to the people instead of trying to lure people to the art. It is by no means the best idea for every style or medium, but many artists can benefit greatly from displaying their work in unorthodox places like restaurants or stores. If the artwork is well executed, a new context for viewing often heightens the impact on a viewer while adding an extra level of quality to the establishment.
The first works I saw were acrylic paintings by Dan May. Painted in an illustrative style reminiscent of classic, weird children’s books and the cartoon art of Spongebob Squarepants, most of his works are very small, yet finely detailed, bringing his fictional subjects to vivid life. Looking something like microorganisms under a microscope, May’s oddly shaped monsters are expressive, humorous, and often engaging. He displays an enormous amount of technical skill with each painting, filling the surface with bright, unique colors.
While May’s paintings clearly present a fantastical world filled with strange little beings and uncommon forms, many also contain a thread of allegory to keep your brain talking while your eyes examine the heavy flow of new images. The thought of them living in my eyebrows and clothing gives me the willies, yet I welcome the drama and excitement they might bring to my skin cells.
Discover more about Dan May and his illustrative works by visiting his website at www.mayillustration.com.
Apparently, the Burrito Gallery was having a two-for-one special on artwork from highly skilled painters. Across the room from May’s colorful microorganisms were the sublime works of Sean Mahan. Complete with an aged appearance, his pastoral portraits recall a time long since passed, but still readily recognizable. They’re comfortable and interesting at the same time.
Skillfully painted on 2x2 wooden panels, Mahan’s portraits usually depict a lone person undertaking a singular task (or no task at all) with virtually no background information. His depiction of the human form is masterful. He possesses an impeccable sense of light and dark and a sophisticated palette of color, and they are mixed together in his works in a unique process. All of Mahan’s works balance the informational qualities of drawing while utilizing the depth-finding qualities of color. Although that may not sound particularly interesting at first, many of the subjects look straight at us, through the picture plane, with an unusual expression that begs us to inquire.
Check out more paintings by Sean Mahan at his website, www.seanmahanart.com.
Just inside the doors of the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach were the large drawings and relatively small prints of professor Donald Martin. With their generous size, the charcoal drawings are capable of communicating a great deal of information without appearing too detailed. Primarily through the use of black as well as white sticks of charcoal, Martin was able to capture the sense of light and dark so essential to landscape art.
In addition to the large-scale drawings, Martin displays his small prints, each of which consists of a small group of images, including detailed renderings of a few of the larger works. Since I have a habit of looking very closely at artwork, I found that the prints were far more visually stimulating than the charcoal drawings. The prints appeared more crisp and authentic, as if plucked from the pages of an old Audubon book.
What I found most interesting about the work of Donald Martin cannot be seen with the naked eye. Unlike many artists, he willfully recognizes an inextricable link between nature’s essence and his place within it, citing a theologian noted for his existential Christian philosophy. Particularly in the world of landscape art, it has always surprised me that so many artists are reluctant to acknowledge any spiritual basis for their work, yet Martin seems to delight in the esoteric qualities of the natural scenes around him.
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