I was just struck when I saw a painting by UK artist Chris Rivers on Laura Brown’s Instagram feed the other day and then spent the next 20 minutes or so checking out his work. It’s amazing.
His latest works are what are so intriguing to me… the soft blurred paints mixed with the harder brushstrokes and perfectly layered whimsical figures, gives it texture and dimension that just makes me want to dive right in! When you look closely, some of the abstract strokes are actually not so abstract at all but little skeletons or butterflies or beetles or what feel like (from far away) fairies floating through a dream reality… the works sort of become what you make them when you look into them, which is the best kind of art to me… open to interpretation.
Similar to Mark Ryden’s work (one of my all-time favorite artists) Chris uses soft, pretty, almost pastels as a backdrop, but with a dark moodiness you can’t really explain. From afar they look pretty and dreamy and catch your eye, but upon further inspection, they are far deeper (with what some would refer to as semi-macabre visuals). The contrast of the two, the way the prettiness draws you in to find something far more thought-provoking, is the winning combo for me.
You can read a little bit into the mind of the artist on his blog.
He’s got original works available on his website (though they’re mostly sold out) but affordable giclee prints as well, which is always nice for the ordinary folk who want to enjoy an artist’s work, but can’t touch an original. I think I’m about to buy two of them.
Below are a few of my faves, but definitely check out his work via his site and instagram because it’s just so dreamy.
W E B S I T E // www.chrisriversart.com
I N S T A G R A M // @chrisriversart
Happy Friday Lovecats!
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