Shiro Takagi was a wonderful printmaker renown for his work with the landscape and birds. Takagi Shiro was born in Hirosaki, Aomori prefecture, Japan in the year 1934.
The artist attended Musashino College of Fine Art located in Tokyo, Japan. The artist quit before graduating as he didn’t like the class structure. Takagi also studied privately with an established printmaker, Amano Kunihiro.
Takagi won many prizes at shows featuring print works in both Japan and Brazil.
Shiro Takagi passed away in 1998.
The artist is part of the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
As mentioned in a recent post, many woodblock print artists use the pattern and grain of the wood to give their finished work a high level of abstraction. Takagi sometimes uses the pattern of wood as the clouds and sky.
Fumio Fujita is a master Japanese printmaker renown for his landscapes and images of trees. In his later years his focus has been mainly on trees, but in his earlier years he worked with the landscapes and also made wonderful prints of animals.
Fumio Fujita was born in Aichi prefecture, Japan in the year 1933.
The artist attended Musashino College of Fine Arts located in the western part of Tokyo, Japan.
Fujita began producing woodblock prints in 1963.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Fujita shows a remarkable sense of design always looking for patterns in items such as tree bark and leaves. Overall his work shows a great blend of realism and abstraction.
In this clip a great selection of works by Luis Seven Martins:
LM7’s style can be described as John James Audubon with a modernist touch. LM7’s art is a wonderful blend of abstraction and color that show birds in constant motion. Another artist working with the same subject matter in a similar style is the painter Frank Gonzales.
Koomwartok Ashoona is one of the sons of famed Inuit artist Pitseolak Ashoona. Koomwartok Ashoona was born in the year 1930.
The artist had a wife and son who also became professional sculptors. He was based out of Cape Dorset, Nunavut Territory, Canada for his career.
Koomwartok Ashoona passed away in 1984.
His favorite subject matter included birds, the Goddess of the Sea named Sedna, and spirits.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Its easy to see that the artist loved to draw and observe animals. His works in stone have a wonderful sense of life due to the flowing and curvy lines.
What a great example of an Inuit family that has had multiple generations of professional working artists!
Kesa hails from Montpelier, France. Kesa was born in the year 1980.
One of the artist’s best known series involved using vinyl records as his main medium. He turned the records in various shapes representing birds, cats, and bats fleeing from the circular shape of the record.
The artist began writing graffiti in 1996.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
The work of Kesa seems ideally made for one specific time of year, Halloween! Especially the works featuring black cats!
Napachie Sharky is an Inuit sculptor born in Cape Dorset, Nunavut Territory, Canada in the year 1971.
His father and grandfather both drowned to death in 1979. His mother is also an artist, Ragee Killiktee.
The artist has a brother already profiled here, Toonoo Sharky, who is also an accomplished artist.
Napachie Sharky carves a wide range of subjects including Inuit people on motorcycles and snowmobiles. Sharky is best known for his work featuring birds. Most of the works completed by the artist use serpentine stone.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Napachie Sharky comes from another very artistic Inuit family. Its interesting that Napachie and his brother Toonoo Sharky both specialize in wildlife and birds, but Napachie’s birds are much more subtle in their captured behavior.
Mark Eberhard is an outstanding painter of floral and bird imagery. Mark Eberhard was born in the year 1949.
Eberhard attended the University of Cincinnati earning a B.F.A. The artist went on to earn a M.F.A. from Yale University.
What I enjoy most about this artist is his sense of design and vivid color. Though his birds are sometimes painted as floating on water, the water doesn’t show any ripples or circles. Its just a flat shape of color. Simple but beautiful.
Paula Waterman is a contemporary American artist renown for her animals prepared on a scratch board surface. In addition to her scratch board work the artist also creates wonderful animal sculptures. In addition to animals the artist enjoys painting marine scenes. Paula Waterman was born in Charlottesville, Virginia in the year 1954.
Waterman first attended college in Washington D.C. at American University. The program had a deep focus on abstract styles so she would eventually switch majors and earn a nursing degree from Washington Hospital Center.
Waterman uses her art to support various animal projects around the globe. The artist has even traveled to Africa for research and to shoot photographs of the animals in their natural surroundings.
As far as animals are concerned Waterman enjoys depicting birds and dogs.
In this clip we view the artist at work and listen to her thoughts on art:
Price range information: Small scratch board items that have sides smaller than 12 inches start at $1,000. Original oils can reach $15,000. no pricing available for sculpture works.
Below part 2 of the interview with Paula Waterman:
The artist is now based out of London, England. He works as a studio based artist and also a muralist.
Xenz is inspired by Asian art and the calligraphic strokes seen in Chinese painting. Xenz is my favorite street artist working with flowers and fauna simply for the fact he creates an extraordinary amount of depth in his works. My favorite images are of what seem to be a very dense and very humid rainforest with some exotic trees.
Xenz began his street art career in Hull, England back in 1987.
These works have it all from wonderful organic and geometric shapes, outstanding color, and movement through the picture. Xenz is also a great artist to study where he chooses to paint limbs and trees in order to make a flat surface have a great deal of depth.
price range information: Most spray paint works are between $3,000 and $10,000. Pricing schedule for oils.
To close we see the artist in action on a large mural of his favorite subject matter, flowers, fauna, and birds:
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