Artists from 'The Upset'

Here are a few artists I came across whilst flicking through 'The Upset', a book documenting the work of contemporary painters and illustrators which I would thoroughly recommend.

There are many more artists in the book, but here are a few of my favourites that I wanted to share with you.

Mark Ryden 'The Apology'

Ray Caesar

Neo Rauch 'Jagdzimmer' / 'Hunters room'

MartinEder 'Nacht'

David Kassan

Brendan Monroe ' When Things Get Out Of Hand'

Ayo Kayto

Anne Faith Nicholls 'Three Sides To The Story' 1997

John Currin 'The Cripple' 1997

I really feel so happy after seeing the work of these contemporary painters. For so long I have feared that realism has gone out of date and that the path I wish to follow one day was not leading anywhere. The connection between films, books and art seems so strong at the moment. There seems to be a lot of fantasy and darkness in the arts. A few also have quite a religious quality to them. If anything seeing these works just makes me want to paint more for myself. I've got two possible commissions over the summer and several ideas for things I want to research and paint.

I also wanted to include this sculpture by Ron Mueck for its incredible realistic qualities. I saw it a few months ago at the DLA Piper series exhibition at Tate Liverpool. It is much more powerful to see it first hand for the sheer scale of the figure.

Ron Mueck 'Ghost' 1998