Figurative and Wildlife Art

Captivated by the alchemy of Nature’s colors and inspired by the Animal Kingdom, Italian painter Roberto Rizzo creates a breadth of unique artworks. The focus of his interest ranges from rock painting and wildlife art, to fine jewels.

After classical studies he attended the IED (European Institute of Design) in Milan and worked as an illustrator for various publishing houses.

Since 1996, part of his artistic activity has been dedicated to rock painting art and in 2004, he published the manual ‘Sassi Dipinti’ which has received a remarkable editorial success.

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Testimonies of a War – A Photographic Project

It is a photographic project where for seven years, I have dedicated myself to exploring the coast of the Strait of Gibraltar to capture images of bunkers and military fortifications from both the Spanish Civil War and World War II.

I have visited about 40 bunkers during all this time, which is an insignificant number compared to the more than 650 bunkers in the Strait of Gibraltar. Out of all the photographs taken, about 75 photos have been selected to compose this photographic project.

Visually, in these images, I impressively capture the essence of these war constructions: suffering and horror. To achieve this, he has used black and white images with strong contrasts that encapsulate time and convey a great sense of drama to the scene.

On the other hand, I also seek to convey the beauty of these immense concrete structures, often located in incredible landscapes. To accomplish this, I have employed meticulously crafted compositions that avoid modern constructions while using low viewpoints or wide-angle lenses to magnify their grandeur.
You can view the complete photographic work on bunkers, as well as other projects, at this website.

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If you are an artist, creative entrepreneur or Blogger, then you can appreciate creative imagery to spark your imagination!  Finding free imagery to use as a source of inspiration for your work or on your Blog posts can be a challenge. It can also be confusing to understand image use from public domain sources.

What is Public Domain?
The term “public domain” refers to creative materials that are not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws. The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it. Sounds confusing? It can be. Read exactly what it means here

Before cruising the Internet for a source of inspiration for an image to use, be sure that the image is in fact, ‘free’. We’ve done some of the work here in finding sources of imagery that are ‘free’ to use. Though, the responsibility is still up to you, always be sure if you have any doubts, as to the usage rights, to contact the owner of the source.

Here Are a Few of the Best Sources for Imagery

New York Public Library

Public Domain Collections: Free to Share & Reuse
More than 180,000 of the items are in the public domain. Hours of inspiration can be found in this vast online resource.

Openverse

Explore more than 600 Million Creative Works
You can spend hours getting lost in this extensive library of free stock photos, images, and audio.

Unsplash

Subscribe and get 10 new photos every 10 days. You don’t know what it will be, but it’s sure worth the surprise.
Unsplash – “Free Do Whatever You Want.”

Death to the Stock Photo

Beautiful lifestyle photography free for the taking. One of the best online. Subscribe here for a pack sent to your inbox monthly along with a writing prompt.

Pexels

Daily 5 new high-quality photos – Pexels

Pikiwizard

Quickly browse free stock photos and view trending, favorites and latest. A good combination of lifestyle, food, nature and themes. Pikiwizard

Pixabay

High quality images you can use anywhere. Pixabay

Free Nature Shots

Free Nature Shots – Great finds in here if you are looking for landscapes, flowers, trees and sky.

Picjumbo

Picjumbo an impressive collection of lifestyle shots.

Cupcake

Cupcake Free Images – You will find some inspiration here! “Although, you’re more than welcome to let me know if you use images for a website, illustration or whatever, it’s inspiring to see the results.”

Stocksnap

Great for concepts and something different. Stocksnap.Explore here

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Interested in seeing more body art work? Check out artistic duo Chadwick Gray and Laura Spector.

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Salvador Dalí was recognized at a young age for having a tremendous amount of creative talent and it was a Dalí family friend who introduced the young Salvador to modern painting. Born May 11, 1904  and died January 23, 1989, Salvador Dalí was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, Spain.

Dream Ideas

He is now known as the greatest surrealists of our time, best known for his ability to translate dreams into artwork, “hand painted dream photographs” he called them. Fascinated with the images he got as he was drifting off to sleep, Dalí would place a tin plate on the floor and sit beside it in a chair, holding a spoon above the plate. He would relax and fall asleep, and the moment when he did, the spoon would fall and clash with the plate, waking him up with the dream images fresh in his mind.

Eccentric Genus

Obviously Dalí was highly imaginative, however he also enjoyed indulging in unusual and grandiose behavior with his ever–present long cape, walking stick, haughty expression, and his trademark upturned waxed mustache. His eccentric manner and attention-grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than his artwork, to the dismay of those who held his work in high esteem, and to the irritation of his critics.

Not timid or humble, he is famous for having said that “every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí”

But Salvador was much too eccentric even for the surrealists, and as he frequently clashed with them politically, they decided to expel him from their group. Never one to be deterred, Salvador claimed that he was the most surrealist of them all, and continued to present his surrealist paintings in exhibits all over the world.

Dangerous Muse?

In 1929 the 25-year-old Dalí met Gala, wife and muse, whose real name was Elena Ivanovna Diakonova. A mysterious and highly intuitive Russian woman, she was able to recognize artistic and creative genius when she saw it, and had relations with a number of intellectuals and artists.

In 1958 Dalí and Gala married at the Àngels chapel, near Girona. In 1968 the painter bought Gala a castle in Púbol, Girona, and it was agreed that the painter could not go there without her prior permission in writing to do so. It was there that Gala was buried, following her death in 1982.

Gala inspired many of Dalí’s artworks and was also his business manager, which supported their extravagant lifestyle. She seemed to tolerate Dalí’s dalliances with younger women, secure in her own position as his primary relationship. Dalí continued to paint her as they both aged, producing sympathetic and adoring images.

However, she may not have really tolerated his bad behavior – she allegedly had been dosing him with a dangerous cocktail of unprescribed medicine that damaged his nervous system, thus causing an untimely end to his artistic capacity. At 76 years old, Dalí was a wreck, and his right hand trembled terribly, with Parkinson-like symptoms.

To say they had a complicated relationship is an understatement! Gala died on June 10, 1982, at the age of 87. After Gala’s death, Dalí lost much of his will to live.

He went downhill rather quickly. He had several accidents and illnesses which may well have been self-inflicted and/or suicide attempts.

Dalí died of heart failure on 23rd January 1989, at his home town of Figueres, a short walk from where he was born.

Dalí produced over 1,500 paintings in his career in addition to producing illustrations for books, lithographs, designs for theater sets and costumes, a great number of drawings, dozens of sculptures, and various other projects, including an animated short film for Disney. He also collaborated with director Jack Bond in 1965, creating a movie titled Dalí in New York.

“There are some days when I think I’m going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.”

“I do not understand why man should be capable of so little fantasy.”

“Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.”

“Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy – the joy of being Salvador Dalí – and I ask myself in rapture: What wonderful things this Salvador Dalí is going to accomplish today?”

– Salvador Dalí

Media Highlights

In 1931, Dalí painted one of his most famous works, “The Persistence of Memory”.

“Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man” by Salvador Dali (1943)

“Sleep” by Salvador Dali (1937)

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Her intriguing work expresses much depth, mystery and emotion. Utilizing photography, mixed media, installation and sculpture, her work captures a moment in time.

Lana Eileen is a musician, photographer and visual artist. Her artwork fuses abstract elements with fine details, combining seemingly disparate fragments to evoke a sense of magic realism. She utilities a variety of different mediums, from photography and painting to installation art and sculpture.

In 2019, Lana undertook an artist residency in remote Iceland. She was also an artist-in-residence on the island of Hrísey near the Arctic Circle in 2021, before participating in a residency in Egypt in 2022, furthering her research into the influence of mythology on contemporary art.

As a musician, Lana has traveled extensively, touring and recording internationally in the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom. She recorded her upcoming album with Brett Shaw (Florence and the Machine, Robyn, Daughter) at his London studio in 2021.

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Elaine de Kooning (1920-1989)
March 12- Happy birthday to Elaine de Kooning who was a Abstract Expressionist, Figurative Expressionist painter.

Elaine DeKooning was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York and spent her childhood studying the lives of artists and visiting the museums and galleries of New York City.

After high school she attended the American Artists School and the Leonardo da Vinci School and was swept up in the cultural excitement in New York of the late 1930s and early 1940s.  In 1943 she married Willem de Kooning, one of the group of artists soon to emerge as the first generation of Abstract Expressionists.  He was sixteen years older than she.

To the public she was known as the wife of Willem de Kooning, who has lived in East Hampton since 1961. To colleagues and those whose lives she affected, however, Ms. de Kooning was a gifted painter.

Elaine is credited as the significant influence on making Willem de Kooning the leading name in New York art circles because of her well-placed flirtations, skillful writing of reviews in art magazines, and ability to speak forcefully in private and public lectures.

As a married couple they had strong emotional ties, and yet each had numerous sexual relationships with other persons. They separated in the 1960s but reconciled in the 1970.

One of her most famous commissions was for President John F. Kennedy, which was in process at the time of the assassination. She worked on hundreds of sketches and some two dozen finished canvases in her attempt to capture the President’s restless energy.

When he died, she was so saddened that she put down her brushes for a year.

Her personal life was tumultuous, largely due to her alcoholism, and the wild, heady times of riding the crest of Abstract Expressionism.  She was a chain smoker, which caused her death at the age of 68 on February 1, 1989 of lung cancer in New York.

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Meet Art and Design inspirations featured artist Pam Wood. Her artwork is made to evoke emotions in the viewer! She uses multiple techniques to create artwork including fluid pours, airbrush and paintbrush.

Nature, animals and people portraits are her favorites. She uses a lot of color in her art because she believes it makes us happier.

Creating art is my obsession and every day is a rainbow of colors for me.

Check out her dramatic work. Spread the inspiration and support the artist by sharing this post.

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The combination of art work is intriguing. From whimsical to magical and expressive and deep, the art captures thoughts, moments in time and helps many of the artists to relieve stress.

Erica Loadman

My art is a combination of my own photography and editing using digital art tools. I am inspired by nature, music, film, other artworks, and emotion. I tend to use dark colors with flickers of brightness to create atmospheric images with a sense of depth.

Stephen Keller

I’m a self taught artist inspired early on by the great artists J.M.W.Turner, Andrew Wyeth and the French impressionists. I get inspiration sometimes from the smallest things; a shadow falling across a roof line, a line from a song or something someone has spoken to me passing. And trees…I love trees. They speak to me.

Sweta Bhoje

I am a amateur artist who paint what she feels to the heart and emotion. My art is oil paint mostly related with nature. I am an artist who paints greenery and plants with oil paint.

Daniel Sheley

Starting painting as a hobby to help relieve stress. Now I just paint when the mood hits me for fun.

Brian Mao

I am a creator of art pictures, painting, or my side profession is photography such as: Landscapes, Portraits, Textures.

Ashley Moss

Ever since I went for walks, I’ve always been captivated by the beauty of flowers and plants. So I decided to buy a camera and capture every flower and plant there is. I’m inspired by colors and shapes and that is what has gotten me into photography.

Rachel Hunnicutt

I’m an artist from Cayce, SC. I’m graduating from Winthrop University in the spring of 2021 with my Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts with a minor in Educational Studies. My passion lies in creating small-scale illustrations. My art is heavily inspired by children’s book illustration and graphic novels, and I often work with muted, pastel color palettes as well as whimsical concepts.

Adrian Zugravu

Graphite Artist

Ali Rohan

Hello, I started doing art since I was 3 years old. At age 8 I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, When I was 8 I was kidnapped overseas by my father. My autoimmune disease got worse to a point that caused me to have 2 liver transplant surgeries. I had many episodes of blood loss and was in a coma for a week. During my 34 years of life I learned to channel my health and trauma into art. My way of communication is my artwork and each piece is a representation and reflection of my life.

Michael Garner

“Sea of Dreams”, paper and watercolor pens

TENDAI MAKUFA

I grew up in Zimbabwe where I trained for 4 years at Zimbabwe National Gallery [fine art] and majoring in painting. I have more than 20 years experience in art industry, I archive prizes. I use all mediums. I normally paint, painting that give hope in our everyday life.

Gareth Carroll

I use alcohol markers and graphite on paper board.

I graduated from fine art (DIT) in 2014 specifying in drawing and print. I then graduated from the National College of Art and Design with a professional masters in education and art.

I exhibited in the complex gallery in 2013 with a student retrospective. I then exhibited in DIT graduation show in 2014 and againin the NCAD gallery in 2016.

My work comes from the reading of Jung Carl, the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. In my present work, there is a repeated motif – that of the literal example of the phrase, “to grin and bear it”. This identifies how animals will bear their teeth when there is danger or a spike in their anxiety levels. I incorporate this with the teachings of Jung Carl in my figurative works.

Kira Feser

It is when we allow ourselves to create and we do not expect anything that we are unstoppable beings. I share my art to the world because it is what I love, what I create in the most raw moments. Sometimes its almost painful the point at which you can lose yourself to unyielded amounts of beauty. These imprints that I leave behind are me, imperfect and entirely whole…

Hope you enjoyed the selection. Be sure and like and share this post to keep the inspiration going.

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Born June 6, 1756 John Trumbull was an American artist of the early independence period.  Trumbull’s greatest achievement was receiving a commission from the US government to paint 4 gigantic murals in the US Capitol after its destruction during the War of 1812. President James Madison personally picked out the paintings, which were Trumbull’s The Declaration of Independence, The Surrender of General Burgoyne, The Resignation of Washington and The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis. It took Trumbull 8 years to finish the paintings. When it was all said and done it was not a great success in the eyes of many who were critical of his work.

The Declaration of Independence

The goal of the The Declaration of Independence painting was to preserve the exact likenesses of those extraordinary individuals—aristocrats, lawyers, doctors, farmers, shopkeepers—who had put their lives and fortunes on the line. Trumbull worked on the Declaration for more than three decades, hoping to include all fifty-six figures, but he was unable to obtain all the likenesses. Of the forty-eight portraits here, thirty-six were taken from life; others were copied from an existing portrait or taken of a son as a substitute.

In the event of The Declaration of Independence, the 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain.

Surrender of General Burgoyne

Painted in 1826, the scene shown in this painting is the surrender of British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga, New York on October 17, 1777.

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis

The subject of this painting is the surrender of the British army at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, which ended the last major campaign of the Revolutionary War.

General George Washington Resigning His Commission

This painting depicts the scene on December 23, 1783, in the Maryland State House in Annapolis when George Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. The action was significant for establishing civilian authority over the military, a fundamental principle of American democracy.

What do these paintings mean – and why are they important?

The paintings express and document the break from Britain and its King to claim the power of an independent country.
In the early 1770s, more and more colonists became convinced that Parliament intended to take away their freedom. In fact, the Americans saw a pattern of increasing oppression and corruption happening all around the world. Parliament was determined to bring its unruly American subjects to heel. Britain began to prepare for war in early 1775. The first fighting broke out in April in Massachusetts. In August, the King declared the colonists “in a state of open and avowed rebellion.” For the first time, many colonists began to seriously consider cutting ties with Britain. The publication of Thomas Paine’s stirring pamphlet Common Sense in early 1776 lit a fire under this previously unthinkable idea.

The Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. To read the entire document, click here.

To this day, United States celebrates the 4th of July. The tradition of setting off fireworks on July 4th began in Philadelphia in 1777, the first organized annual celebration of Independence Day while Congress was still occupied with the ongoing war. The Ships’ cannon fired a 13-gun salute in honor of the 13 colonies.

As Thomas Jefferson once said: “My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!”

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