Code Painting

Philosophical statement in painting

Fruit Shop. Between 1618 - 1621. Flemish painter Frans Snyders (11 November 1579 – 19 August 1657). State Hermitage Museum, Russia
Fruit Shop. Between 1618 – 1621. Flemish painter Frans Snyders (11 November 1579 – 19 August 1657). State Hermitage Museum, Russia

At the end of the Renaissance in northern Europe decorative still life genre has turned into a philosophical statement in painting. XVI-XVIII century – the golden time in the history of European still life. In those years, there were two main schools of art, specializing in the image of flowers, fruits and objects – Flemish and Dutch. Despite the fact that Flanders (Belgium) and the Netherlands (Dutch) were the neighboring states and their artists had different meanings in the “nature morte” (the so-called still life in Flanders), or “quiet life” (as referred in the Netherlands).
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Architecture

Simferopol wood carver Igor Dzheknovarov

Dry trees carved sculpture in Simferopol, Russia. Art work by Crimean self-taught artist Igor Dzheknovarov
Dry trees carved sculpture in Simferopol, Russia. Art work by Crimean self-taught artist Igor Dzheknovarov

Crimean self-taught artist wood carver Igor Dzheknovarov adorns his native city – Simferopol with statues of people, gods and angels, which he cuts from the dry trees. The master woodcarver admits that he stopped counting his art pieces after the first three dozens of sculptures. The tallest of them reaches 5 m, and there is a composition of 10-12 wooden pieces. Popularity came to Dzheknovarov not immediately, because for more than six years instead of old dry trees appeared statues in different parts of the city, as anonymous. During this time, the city has changed beyond recognition, many wonderful wooden sculptures do not leave anyone indifferent. Interest in the mysterious master increased after the public have learnt about the creator of these beautiful works of art – Simferopol wood carver Igor Dzheknovarov.
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Applied Art Jewelry Miniature

Antique buttons art

Button 'Cat trying to catch a lizard'. copper
Button ‘Cat trying to catch a lizard’. copper

Antique buttons art. Button for a long time served as a decorative ornament. Buttons were made ​​from precious metals, coral, amber, pearls. The shape, size, decoration and number of buttons on clothing informed about a person’s wealth and social status. Some garments were often more than a hundred buttons. Fur coat might be cheaper than the existing buttons on it. Historically, fashions in buttons have also reflected trends in applied aesthetics and the applied visual arts, with button-makers using techniques from jewellery making, ceramics, sculpture, painting, printmaking, metalworking, weaving and others.
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Painting

Uzbek artist Erkin

Balance. 2011. Oil on panel. Painting by Uzbek artist Erkin
Balance. 2011. Oil on panel. Painting by Uzbek artist Erkin

Uzbek artist Erkin
Born in 1957 in the Soviet Tashkent, Erkin graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1977. Then he entered All-Russian State University of Cinematography in Moscow. A great source of inspiration for the artist are Dutch and Spanish masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The favorite theme in paintings by Erkin – Chinese porcelain from his own country . He collects antique porcelain bowls and plates, buying them on the flea markets.
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Architecture Books

Illustrated BookBenches project

Illustrated BookBenches project
Illustrated BookBenches project

Illustrated BookBenches project has been recently launched in London. The creative project presented by 50 benches in the form of open books with colorful illustrations can be seen throughout the city. Many artists were drawn specifically to decorate the giant “pages” of iconic books. Benches will be exhibited in the British capital until the 15th of September. The project Books about Town was initiated by the National Literacy Trust. All benches (called BookBenches), presented in the project, illustrate the works that are somehow connected with London: main characters, origin, or author. According to the participants of the event – cartoonist Ralph Steadman (illustrator of “Alice in Wonderland”), and artist and writer Cressida Cowell (creator of the book series “How to Train Your Dragon”), such art objects should open to the general public the joy of reading
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Painting

Spanish artist hyperrealist Ruben Bellos Adorna

Spanish artist hyperrealist Ruben Bellos Adorna
Hyperrealistic drawing by Spanish artist Ruben Bellos Adorna

Ruben Bellos Adorna, a young artist from Seville, Spain, stormed the world of fine art with his incredibly realistic drawings of real and fictional characters, which he creates on wooden canvases using colored chalks. Spanish artist hyperrealist Ruben Bellos Adorna was born in Seville in 1986. He graduated with honors from University of Fine Arts in Sevilla in 2010. For his Honors Thesis at Faculty of Fine Arts he got the University Award “Royal Cavalry of Seville” for the year 2009/2010, the next year – Excellency Award of the City of Sevilla. Ruben Bellos Adorna has participated in numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. He has exhibited individually in Spain, Italy and Portugal. Ruben Bellos Adorna has received several awards among which the 1st Girault Award at the International Biennial of pastel painting in Spain 2011, 2nd Cranes Lozano Award in 2009, and the 1st Award Juan Robles the young talents to Culture in 2010. The works of a talented artist hyperrealist Ruben Bellos Adorna has been featured in numerous newspapers, on radio and TV.
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Jewelry Miniature

Antique gem carving art

Antique gem carving art
Cameo, 12th century; frame – the end of the 16th century. Agate, gold, pearls, precious stones

Antique gem carving art is known as Glyptics, and it is the art of carving on multicoloured or precious stones. Glyptic works are called engraved gems. The activity is called gem carving, and the artists – gem-cutters. References to antique gems, and intaglios in a jewellery context, will almost always mean carved gems. Gems with embedded images (intaglio), and with bas-relief images of convex (cameo) are distinguished. They were born of the classical art of antiquity, an art which poeticized and proclaimed as aesthetically pleasing all that was best and most worthy in the ideal of harmonious and perfect man. A craftsman could spend months and even years on the creation of a single cameo. E. Babelon, the French scholar of the early twentieth century and one of the most eminent connoisseurs of glyptics, remarked that it took as long to make a large cameo as to build a whole cathedral.
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