Belin is an amazing Spanish street artist renown for his unique style of work with the face and figure. Belin was born in a city located in the south of Spain called Linares. Belin’s work is a blend of surrealism, realism, and caricature.
Belin is short for the artist’s last name, Belinchon.
The artist often works on murals with other well known street artists including Otes.
When the weather isn’t cooperating with making graffiti, the artist turns to the art of sculpture.
In this clip we view the artist at work on mural in the Netherlands:
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Belin shows remarkable innovation in his work. Often times he uses photographs for resources, but with his style of exaggeration one might think the artist just created a masterpiece from life!
As a huge fan of caricature artists lets check out one of the best in Joe Bluhm. Having done caricature in front of large crowds Joe Bluhm always got the nod from fellow artists for being the most creative and boldest artist in the chair.
Joe Bluhm was born in the year. Bluhm attended the Cleveland Institute of the Arts.
Below a short bio on Joe Bluhm:
In some cases you may see an artist can stretch or pull a feature from the comfort of their studio, but Joe Bluhm would push features to the maximum in his live caricature work. Bluhm is also a highly talented painter.
What I enjoy most about his technique is his ability to capture hair, especially short hair which can be tricky. Bluhm does a wonderful job at creating various small shapes rather than just leave a flat shape and tone for the hair. He also creates wonderful eyes.
Bluhm now works as a storyboard artist but he got his start drawing caricatures. In this clip we see him at work and some customers who don’t appreciate his skill at nailing their likeness!:
Adding my two cents as a caricature artist. The best way you can get experience is to go to a destination city and work their for a season. Bluhm was able to master his caricature by working in such destinations as Orlando, Florida. Las Vegas is another great destination for this opportunity. Its great because of the different types of people to be drawn.
Peggy Bacon is an American artist renown or her caricature work and illustrations of children’s books. Peggy Bacon was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut in the year 1895. Bacon’s parents were both artists and met each other at the Art Student’s League of New York. Over her lengthy career Bacon illustrated more than 60 books including writing 19 of these.
Price range information: Bacon was a prolific printmaker with prices ranging from $500 to $10,000.
As a young child and teen Bacon lived in many different locations around the world including Paris, France and Nassau, Bahamas and the north eastern part of the United States.
In this clip we view a top 10 list of illustrations produced by Peggy Bacon:
After finishing high school at a boarding school her father killed himself due to depression.
Bacon enjoyed the Art Student’s League of New York City because it was the first time she was surrounded by young people who all had the same common interest and goals, to succeed in the world of art.
Bacon was elected to the National Academy of Design.
Peggy Bacon passed away in 1987 at the age of 91 years old.
Bacon worked in oils, watercolors, and gouache.
What wonderful draftsmanship. Bacon is often overlooked, but her drawing skills were just as good as other artists of her era such as Kenneth Hayes Miller and Ed Hopper.
Dal Holcomb was born in Youngstown, Ohio in the year 1901. Holcomb was one of the premier illustrators of his day working on national advertising campaigns with companies including Listerine mouthwash, General Tire, and Mazda Lamps. In addition the artist was renowned for his celebrity caricature works.
For many of his work he signed them with only an “H.”
His favorite mediums were watercolor and gouache.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Dal Holcomb passed away in 1978.
I really enjoyed the way the artist was able to nail his likenesses on his caricature work. Some other caricaturists covered here include Gerald Scarfe and Sebastian Kruger.
Since I will be posting some caricatures of my favorite tennis players later this week, lets take a look at a great caricature artist and painter named William Auerbach-Levy. William Auerbach Levy was born in the year 1889 in the Russian Empire. This area is now called Belarus. His family moved to the United States in 1894.
For his artistic education the artist attended schools in New York City and Paris, France.
Levy was a professor at the National Academy of Design.
His cartoons appeared in many national magazines including Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
William Auerbach-Levy is part of prominent collections including the Library of Congress and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Price range information: The artist was a prolific etcher and printmaker. These works cost between $300 and $1,000. Oils can reach $5,000.
From an artistic viewpoint what I enjoy most about his caricatures is the very creative viewpoints he chooses to draw from.
William Auerbach-Levy passed away in 1964 at the age of 75 years old.
Mike Morgan is a well known artist all throughout Australia and New Zealand best known for his Surrealist paintings depicting large groups of people enjoying themselves. Mike Morgan was born in Whangarei ,New Zealand in the year 1952.
When the artist was fifteen he got employment at a local newspaper working in the cartoon and caricature section of the operation.
In 1972 at the age of twenty Morgan started painting with oils for the first time.
In 1980 made a voyage to North America visiting both Canada and the United States for the first time. Upon his return to Australia in 1981 Morgan was determined to be a full time professional artist.
1987 sells works to the Children’s Hospital.
1989 sells works to rock band U2.
Mike Morgan is now based out of Auckland, New Zealand.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
In the clip below we visit a gallery show. The first 50 seconds is a scary trip in a car to the gallery, I say scary because in New Zealand cars drive on the left side of the road. Paintings start around 50 seconds into the clip.
When looking at his highly illustrative style I reminded of John Brack, the two are very similar with wonderful characters full of expression. I did a post on John Brack just a few days ago but to refresh your memory a painting by John Brack below. Brack came from Australia and lived from 1920 to 1999. Its his most famous work, 5 o’clock Collins Street, showing evening rush hour in Australia. A great painter of crowd and group scenes, something else in common with Mike Morgan.
Julio Larraz is another well known artist that was born in Havana, Cuba in the year 1944. His father owned was the publisher of a newspaper. Larraz’s painting style is wonderful mix of realism and fantasy. I enjoy looking at his art as he is able to push color as you would expect a Caribbean artist to do. By that I mean I learned as a painter that if I had a red rose, to grey down the red and only use straight from the tube red where I wanted the viewers eye to go. Larraz lives in where maximum color exists everywhere! From the brightly colored fruit in the trees to the flesh tones of the beach and bright pink and bright yellow houses! Every artist should go to the Caribbean if no other reason than to experience life with an abundance of color everywhere.
A great clip here! Here we see the Larraz’s painting the Tropic of Cancer, go up for auction at Sotheby’s.
Quick selection of the artist’s wide variety of painting from figures and surrealistic works to still life paintings.
In 1961 his family left Cuba and came to the United States. The family lived in Miami, Washington D.C. and then New York city. Over little more than five years time he was able to study with such master painters (in modern times not when he studied with them) Burton Silverman, Aaron Shickler, and David Levine. Its easy to see some influences the artist had from David Levine who was a well known caricaturist working in pen and ink for the most part. Larraz became known as a caricaturist when he was beginning his artistic career.
Here is a wonderful example of David Levine’s caricature style, the celebrity in case you can’t tell, is film director Woody Allen.
Aaron Shikler is a well known artist best known for his portraits. From his paintings I can see that he influenced Larraz on using black, or very dark tones close to it in his works which give them a different feeling of space. Very quiet and still. Below is a great example of Shikler’s style.
Larraz is included in the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
Larraz began working as a full time artist in 1967.
First solo exhibition in the United States took place in Washington D.C. in 1971.
Another artist who has a similar style at least in perspective in that this artist paints many times from views right above the subject. I have blogged about him before and he makes wonderful still lifes, his name is Kenne Gregoire. Here is an example of his above the subject viewpoint. This painting of a nude in bed reminds me a great deal of the painting sold by Larraz at Sotheby’s titled Tropic of Cancer.
Price range information: Larraz is an old school artisan craftsman well schooled in many mediums from oils ranging from $30,000 to $360,000. Pastels range from $10,000 to $40,000.
Watercolors range from $6,000 to $25,000. Not enough sales to make a judgement on prices for sculpture works.
Larraz lives and works out of Miami, Florida.
I enjoy this artist for his bright color palette and strong contrasting darks. Also a great technique to include views from above. For some art homework try a view from straight above your subject!
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