Jonathan Earl Bowser - Cathedral of Illusion

¤ "Cathedral of Illusion" is one of Jonathan Earl Bowser's fine paintings that he is offering for sale as a Giclee print on his site, "The Goddess Art of Jonathan Earl Bowser". Details from "Cathedral of Illusion"¹ may be found on this page¹.

¤ "Cathedral of Illusion" is a tapestry of glorious parts which make up the whole. Let me explain: The unseen cathedral has a golden pinkish glow under a simple but elegant archway that could be mistaken for heaven. The "water of life"¹ (Mentioned in the detail page on the painting.¹) has had a lot depth added to it to make the rocks seem incredibly life-like. The moss covering on the rocks gives it a delightful touch. The "red king"¹ looks like he is the king of all he surveys -- very focused but determined at the same time.

My absolute favourite portion of the painting is the "Maiden of the Rose Window"¹ -- her hair looks like it is caught up in the winds of hope -- her complexion looks like pure silk -- her armbands look like they contain eye piercing jade -- her cuffs are cut in a diamond shape which would reminder her of her royal status..

~ Mags

¤ Jonathan Earl Bowser is one of my favourite "fantasy" artists. I put "fantasy" in brackets because he doesn't quite fit in with a lot of the artists I was following for fantasy cover art and gaming art. That was the genre of art I was following for quite a while after I discovered being able to look up the artists on the Internet many years ago.

I love the feeling Bowser puts into his work and the detail he puts into it as well. In some ways it is very realistic, but in others it is a step beyond reality. He does some really incredible landscapes and he also does very excellent studies of the female form. The two come together in grand harmony in his "Goddess Art". He also has that desire and talent to blend one subject or item into another to create something greater than the two separately. In this image he blends the cathedral-like forest with cascading brook rolling down an aisle in the trees into an actual aisle descending from the interior of a cathedral with the stained glass cathedral windows illuminating all in a magical light.

The lady in early medieval garb stroking a white dove, while a red bird -- I see in a detailed image it is a small red raptor, perhaps a hawk? -- appears about to alight on her shoulder adds a centre point and the greater meaning to the piece. There is a page with details of the image¹ including the artist with the original painting on the site. The titles to the individual detail images on the "Details¹" page make you wonder about the story behind the image. They make you think there "must" be some story inspiring the details.

But then it is the detail that make this artists works stand out.

~ Darrell

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¹ Detail page for Cathedral of Illusion.

Rob Gonsalves - Spring Skiing

¤ "Spring Skiing" is an illustration by Rob Gonsalves whose artwork is featured in a number of places on the net though the best actual gallery of his work I have found is at Discovery Galleries. Another location with some good images of his illustrations is on "Seamless pictures | haha.nu -- a lifestyle blogzine".

Rob Gonsalves does interesting artwork in his own particular style. He uses an awareness of architecture that started at a young age taking direction into perspective techniques leading to his first paintings and renderings of imagined buildings. This has directed him into works which are surreal in quality where an image done of one scene blends seamlessly into another. It is reminiscent of Escher to me.

He uses "carefully planned illusionist devices."* to create these images in a seamless fashion that I find are very unique. I do like the term "Magic Realism"* to describe his work as referred to in the Discovery Galleries' Biography of the artist*. Outside of the seamless illusion of the blending of one image into the next, his style is crisp and reminds me of the best illustration work I remember from school books and Reader's Digest. I am not sure what you would call that style, but it works well here and can speak volumes. I think it is the clarity of the style that adds even more to the illusion. It is easier to hide an illusion in mist and fog than in crisp good lighting.

"Spring Skiing"blends that pure white snow of the mountains with that pure white "snow" shower of petals from the flowering fruit trees in Spring. While in places you may have drifts of pink, here you would have the white drifts from these fruit trees. The alpine purity of snow blending seamlessly into the floral purity of the Spring fruit trees.

~ Darrell

For those extreme skiers amongst us, Rob Gonsalves piece entitled "Spring Skiing" is a sports lover's delight. He has managed to turn an extraordinary environment into a seamless slope of powder which only makes you want to be there in person.

My selection on which piece of his artwork to review was made extremely difficult -- not because his gallery does not have much to offer -- but because each piece has elements that are worthy of artistic critique. After much pondering we settled for "Spring Skiing". More works of his will be reviewed in future here at Blended Realms.

~ Mags

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* Rob Gonsalves -- Discovery Galleries -- Fine Art