Hyperrealist oil paintings and colored pencil drawings

Even if you are not an art geek, you can’t deny the fact that hyperrealist art commands attention and let’s us appreciate the incredible artistry of new generation of artists. Although hyper-realism is still a gentle spring in the river of contemporary art cacophony, it’s been gaining prominence among art collectors, galleries and art museums alike for the past two decades. An offshoot of photorealism, contemporary art hyperrealism takes photography to a whole new level when we see not only a faithful copying of reality, but also a highly artistic interpretation of the subject, light and meaning that result in beautiful works of art.

Aesthetic, visual perception, cultural impact and unique narrative play a great role in creation of hyper-realistic paintings today. Unlike almost mechanical copying of reality we observe in photorealism painting, contemporary hyper-realists focus more on creative design, story, and emotion, painting from their combination of references. Although photography is an integral part to this creative process, knowing how to take great reference and to use it well is a highly artistic skill that’s unique to every contemporary artist you see here. While subjects may vary greatly from still life to portraiture to imaginative realism, the hyperrealism art is about creation of new reality – the illusion so real, you  want to reach out and touch it. The following artists share their unique vision with us, inviting viewers into their personal reality. By reading their statements here you can understand how individual and complex their emotional journey is to arrive at their present state of visual excellence in art.

Contemporary hyperrealist artists

Sheryl Luxenburg

This painting is about growing up and reaching adult maturity. Really about the fact that it often can take aging to our senior years, to finally understand what this means.

Canadian hyperrealist painter, Sheryl Luxenburg works in watercolor, airbrush, and acrylic paint to depict women in intense psychological states of confusion, dread, conflict, anger or numbness that often mirror the artist’s past emotions. Her female figures are pressed against misted glass or submerged in water to express a fatigued state of mind we may experience in distress. Luxenburg’s interest in human condition comes from her vast practice as a licensed psychotherapist specializing in trauma and PTSD.

Contact: www.sherylluxenburg.com

Jason de Graaf

For me my paintings are a way of communicating with the world. Not necessarily about communicating concrete ideas about anything but more to express my sense of humor and taste, my perspective on life, the human condition, the art world and the absurdity.

Dramatically lit, hyperrealistic paintings of a Canadian artist Jason de Graff are carefully constructed still lifes that become alternate reality. Depicting specular reflections with incredible mastery, Jason often arranges his objects horizontally to balance all the shapes out with ardent perfection. Utilizing cool color palette, hyper-realistically painted glass, books, berries and even earbuds almost feel alive, having an unexplained connection to each other, telling a story. Strategically placed a pop of color – red in gummies, marbles and berries alike infuses the artist’s paintings with striking visual balance and enigma. Every acrylic painting shows Jason’s incredible sense of color, mood and design. In de Graaf’s artwork we see familiar objects that take on new roles and attributes to mesmerize us.

Contact: http://www.jasondegraaf.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/jason_de_graaf/

Jacob A. Pfeiffer

The objects I include in my paintings are often deeply personal and remind me of something joyful or silly that I have experienced.  Creating whimsy and beauty in my art is most meaningful to me. With my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, I try to infuse my subject matter with visual puns, wordplay and metaphor in order to offer the viewer a respite from the serious times that we live in.

American hyperrealist painter, Jacob A. Pfeiffer works in warm and neutral palette of colors to create humorous and simple oil paintings that make us ponder over levitating sacks of fruit, bowling balls, goldfish or shoes, which strike a perfect relationship to objects below them. These realist paintings show the influence of Magritte when objects are taken out of their expected context and placed into a new environment irrationally. In his work however, Pfeiffer manages to create a deliberate, psychological relationship between such objects. For example, we see a goldfish in a fish tank with three paper planes hoovering over it. Titled “Flying fish,” this realistic painting makes us think of the importance of the environment we may be in to actually be able to fly, or perhaps the fact that the fish can’t fly per se. In “Party crasher” we observe a play of words and objects, creating a visual riddle in his painting. Classically trained, the artist brings humanity into his hyperrealistic painting that becomes a lot more significant than a plain recreation of reality.

Contact: http://www.jacobapfeiffer.com/

Jane Jones

Every one of my paintings is a prayer for the appreciation and preservation of nature. For an artist, nature is a vast subject.  My choice is to focus on the details that I find so intriguing; flowers.  When they are infused with sunlight the colors are breathtaking, and the curves, curls and sweeps of the petals create a mesmerizing dance.  Frequently I include rocks in my compositions as reminders that everything upon which life depends, comes from the Earth. I am concerned about the disruption of the balance of nature, and have to believe in and paint the everyday triumphs of nature. The aesthetic pleasure of illuminated colors and forms is obvious in my paintings.  I am also interested in beauty.  It is something people respond to, is uplifting and hopeful…the desire for it is universal.  Flowers occupy the elevated level of beauty, which moves us and evokes notes of aspiration to vibrate within us.

Jane Jones is an American artist who paints colorful flowers with poetic simplicity. Gorgeous textures and vivid colors of tulips, irises and roses stir our imagination. Thanks to home gardening in Colorado, the artist is able to capture the crisp light on her favorite subjects with remarkable clarity and detail. Painting in classical tradition, the artist manifests her love for nature in beautiful compositions that exhibit an unbelievable sense of balance among flowers, fabric and background space.

If you’re interested to learn about Jones’ oil painting techniques, go to the artist’s website to browse a selection of helpful materials. Contact:  http://www.janejonesartist.com/

Sharon Sprung

My paintings are a carefully observed negotiation, manipulated layer upon layer in order to create a work of art as equivalent as possible to the complexity of real life. They are an attempt to control the almost uncontrollable substance that is oil paint, and the equally untamable expression of the human condition.

American artist Sharon Sprung paints from female models directly to create colorful oil paintings that unite subjects with their space. Her nude, semi-nude, and clothed models have no predictable luster, rather they convey sensuality coming from personal strength, confidence and resilience. The painted women look comfortable posing or at rest, modeling in space of the Art Students League of New York where the artist is also an instructor of painting.

Contact: http://www.sharonsprung.com/

Jesse Lane

Throughout my body of work, I tell stories of recovery.  Adrenaline is about accepting loss.  While the water is beating down on the figure, his pose remains somewhat graceful.  Rather than becoming beaten down, he seems to thrive off of what’s hitting him.  Struggle can do that to us.  While it beats us down at first, eventually we rise up stronger because of it.

Jesse Lane creates unbelievable, hyperrealistic colored pencil drawings that often become his self-portraits, showing signs of personal survival, acceptance, and strength. Both male and female figures are exposed to dramatic lighting conditions reminiscent of Caravaggio and Rembrandt. Set under a strong, directional yellow light, the artist’s close-up portraits are more than hyperreal – they are emotionally intense. Colored pencil drawing is an incredibly slow process and such large-scale work commands the artist’s dedication and love for the art form to produce realistic figurative drawings.

Contact: RJD Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY | http://rjdgallery.com/artist/jesse-lane/

Karen Hollingsworth

I’ve struggled with these questions (defining meaning in art) since the beginning of my art career. I usually think of myself as a pretty introspective person, and someone who searches for meaning in my life. But since the 1st time people asked me to explain the meaning in my paintings I have struggled to find it. The way I find my subject matter for my paintings seems to be a real gut instinct. I see something, in my real life, nature, other artists work, even an interesting tv show or movie. And it stirs my imagination and I start to build a concept for a composition. I’ll work with a drawing, adding and subtracting elements intuitively, till I get this rush of emotion that tells me I’m onto something good. I keep working with it, using photography and Photoshop to put together something that actually makes me joyful. Then I begin the painting using my reference photos.

But after the process is over, painting finished and sent away, I sometimes get a clearer insight into what might have motivated me. For many years my paintings were based on a series I called ” WindowScapes”. They were what I like to call “gentle rooms”. Not fussy, simple furniture and wood floors. A room I would find peaceful. Behind the furniture, would be a window, also simple, double hung, divided light, commonly found in homes. But then the drama comes in by adding an open window with white curtains flowing in a breeze, and through the window a soothing scene. Gentle oceans and soft mountains. After composing these images, it always felt like I had cured what ailed me.

Later, I started to understand that to me , the world , like the oceans and mountains, was beautiful and exciting, but because I feel so vulnerable at times, I created a world where the safety and separateness of experiencing it from through a window made me feel protected. And I’ve experienced some losses in my life, and I believe the empty chairs in my paintings might be spaces for those losses. Or maybe the empty chairs are waiting for me or the viewer to fill with ourselves. 

For the last 10 or 12 years, I’ve been trying to move towards a vegan diet. I’m terribly disturbed by what happens to animals on factory farms. I hate needless suffering, especially to defenseless animals. So my images are about escaping! Animals getting free from these horrible tragic lives. And as I write this, I realize that I also feel the weight of suffering in my own life and my need to escape from it, so I personally feel this need to escape my suffering too. I don’t want to get too preachy, but when I realized that a meat based diet was the reason for so much disease in our lives, and destruction of our planet, and created so much suffering to the animals and humans who have to work in the slaughter houses, it just seemed like a no brainer to me. I stopped contributing to it by eating a plant based diet, and began to create images with animals that hopefully will cause people to have more empathy for these wonderful creatures we get to share our world with.

So the painting I’m showing here is titled “Rescue” through the kindness and courage of the sheep and the crow, a rescue mission is in progress to save the bunnies. Under the dark of night, with only the light of a partial moon and bright star, these hopeful creatures have taken their future into their own “paws”. I wish them only the best!

Contact: http://www.karenhollingsworth.com/index.html

Sharon Siew Suan Kow

There is something about quietness.  That particular moment where we are able to hear our innermost thoughts. A time for reflection, contemplation with a hint of melancholy. To retreat into the quietness is not selfish, it is a dissonance that we need to appreciate what we have, to mature and transfigure us. Being an artist, a moment of quietness is priceless. It is a time when I can be my true self, to listen to my inner voice. I let out all of the anger, bitterness and sadness that were buried deep inside without hurting anyone else. It is a way to purge out all those negative thoughts and thereafter, move on with a positive mind.

Sharon is one of few hyperrealist colored pencils artists working in Malaysia. What’s even more fantastic that the artist became one in her early forties, grasping the drawing concepts so quickly. While her hyperreal drawings rely on photography, the artist portrays more than snapshots of color and light in her art. Many of her pieces depict close-ups of elaborate mechanical constructions, such as an old typewriter, broken clock mechanisms, rusted chains and metal parts. Such colored pencil drawings communicate a feeling of subtle melancholy and introspection with Time playing a crucial role in all human experiences.

Contact: http://sharonsskow.com/

Emanuele Dascanio

I focus more not on the specific pieces of art, but more on the way to do art. I try to do something that mirrors our constantly changing world, our vision and the way we live. It’s introspective and emotional. I balance art with science and emotion to create my images. I don’t call myself an artist, rather an authority to make order of things. The dust on paper is not very important, but how I make order of this dust to appear as a complete image is my job. While my images represent something different, I love to take some reference from the past because only if you know where we come from, we know where we are going.

Italian hyperrealist artist Emanuele Dascanio works in charcoal, pencil and paint to depict life as he sees it – gigantic and powerful. Spectacular lighting creates mystery in his hyperrealistic drawings and paintings that depict people and still life alike with sensual realism. Classically trained, the artist also uses photography to capture fast-moving details, such as running water or purged juice on the fruit to incorporate these effects into his art. Influenced by Raphael, Michelangelo and Caravaggio, the artist mostly draws from life to create sublime images of light and dark.

Contact: http://emanueledascanio.org/

Sergey Piskunov

The water’s surface reflects the combination of cold blue and warm peach encountered at the intersection of two elements. This painting gives us the opportunity to see a familiar world at an unusual angle that is hauntingly beautiful and striking.

Ukrainian artist Sergey Piskunov paints portraits of women submerged in water, cellophane and even facial masks. Some sexual, some not the lighthearted portraits look incredibly real with facial expressions and color choices capturing the mood of joy and fun.

Contact: https://www.facebook.com/piskunovart/

In conclusion, artist’s personality and dedication to the art form determines the nature and outcome of the painting process. While being introspective, every generation of artists reflects on the world, leaving social, cultural or even political commentary in art. In this roundup of hyperrealist artists we can observe a testament to deliberate process that’s emotionally charged. So let’s cross our fingers for this art form to create a positive change in our tumultuous world.

Please contact all artists directly.

Other hyper-realist artists to check out:

Marcello Barenghi, Heather Rooney, Tjalf Sparnaay, Douglas Flynt, Yigal Ozeri, Clio Newton, Mike Dargas, Alyssa Monks, and Collin Bogle.

Check out visionary art for sale

To continue reading:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hyperrealism – definitions

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperrealism_(visual_arts)