Andy Everson - Watchmen

¤ This is Andy Everson's "Watchmen". His online gallery can be found on his site "Artwork by Andy Everson". We decided to do a second Andy Everson print right away because they tied together well. His piece "Farewell" (image to right) also features a figure looking across the water at the Full Moon. You can find our other review on our "Andy Everson - Farewell" page. Additionally we are including an additional image of one of his Full Moon pieces called "Full Moon".

¤ "Watchmen" captures a bright moonlit night and shows the village watchmen watching for attackers who might come to prey on their village while the villagers lay sleeping, sure in the security of the watchmen's watchful eyes. Everson's people -- the K'omoks -- lived in a coveted location -- the "Land of Plenty" -- which was coveted by two other major groups that might send raiding parties in the night. The watchmen would upon seeing the telltale sign of enemy war canoes, send runners to the village so the people could leave their long houses and head to the defensive palisade on the overlooking hill. You can read more on his page "Watchmen".

This image captures a modern stylistic image of the watchmen with the traditional styled K'omoks full moon. I think that there are a number of ways that this stylized full moon might be done, though I imagine there are some base rules to it. I do like the composition. I think it compliments nicely with his other print "Farewell" and would love to have the two of them hanging from my wall.

~ Darrell

¤ The "Watchmen" by Andy Everson

The seasoned warriors are crouched like tigers, ready to strike for war. The gold coloured moon in the "Watchmen" makes the composition more visually complex for those of us who don't have perfect eyesight. Sometimes artwork can be difficult for the visually impaired.

~ Mags

Robert S Connett - Night Trawler

¤ Robert S Connett's "Night Trawler" can be found on his "flickr" page on "flickr". You can also find R.S. Connett's work on deviantART as "vmaximus" -- "vomit maximus" in his gallery there. Do not forget to click on the "All Sizes" link at the top of the image to see the large size version to take in the impressive detailwork of this artist.

¤ Taken aback -- obscure, fanciful, or just plain crazy -- I'm not quite sure. One thing I do know however, is that this artist isn't afraid to push the boundaries of what we consider to be artistic. But that's what I think gives this artist his appeal. The dark hulking colosus in the middle of the work looks like its an invention from a Sci Fi movie set being sent to its final resting place. The other inhabitants of the water look like they've just stumblied upon modern man gone wrong.

~ Mags

¤ I prefer this artist's later works and his works with places and things, to those of people, beings, and animals -- but that is my bias. People need not like all of an artist's works to like the work of an artist. I recommend looking at what the artist has to say about his own work under the images on flickr. He has a talent for writing as well as painting.

Connett puts great detail in his work -- working with magnifying glasses and jeweller's glasses to accompany the hair fine brushes he uses. In "Night Trawler" there is nowhere you can look and not see something of interest, something to make you wonder about what it is doing there. There are themes from other paintings repeated here: I see the people with telescopes that I recognize from the "Spying on the Dark City" painting; I see the city of glass from "Spying on the Dark City" and "Dreaming by the City of Glass" as well as other pieces; and themes from other paintings.

There are many stories being told in "Night Trawler" and though many are put their by the artist, many more are set to be created by the viewer.

~ Darrell.

Lynette Cook -- HD16141 b and Moon

¤ Lynette Cook's "HD16141 b and Moon" can be found on her site, "The Many Facets of Lynette Cook", along with other examples of her work including books, products, prints and other information.

¤ I found Lynette Cook's work while looking for depictions of what they thought a "Hot Jupiter" might look like. It is in a collection of space art depicting "exo-planets" -- planets which have been discovered which orbit stars other than the Sun. Of course for such things we depend on the work of Space artists. I enjoyed looking at her work and wanted to review it here. I chose this piece out of all the works she has on her site because of its similarity with the work by Chelsey Bonestell, "Saturn as seen from Titan"¹ which we recently reviewed.

Of course the two artists use a different style and probably media, and Cook's piece if of a moon close to its star and thus very hot and backed. But still there are great similarities in the compositions. I wonder if the crispness of Bonestell's work intentionally highlights the crisp coldness of Titan while the rounded bluffs of Cook's piece give a baked and rounded feeling of heat to hers.

I note that while Bonestell includes a dusting of ice on ridge and cliff tops, Cook includes a baked "river" bed on hers. I suspect that it wasn't water that flowed in that bed... perhaps sulphur?

I think the choice of including the system's star in the image ads to the feeling of heat in the composition. On the other hand, I find that space art of exo-planets traditionally include the star to indicate how similar that star is to the Sun and how close it is to the planet.

It is very interesting to see how space art has evolved.

~ Darrell

¤ This space art by Lynette Cook is in some ways very similar to the recent piece reviewed entitled "Saturn as seen from Titan"¹. Although we tend to concentrate on common elements there is one striking difference -- the planet's surface looks serene as well as being on it's death bed. Including the yolk yellow sun in the image adds a gentle finishing point.

~ Mags

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¹ "Saturn as seen from Titan" reviewed August 18, 2008

dinyctis - Space Lane

¤ You can find dinyctis' piece "Space Lane" on deviantART as well as a few other places on the Web. He has an interesting gallery, though some might find it a bit opinionated.

¤ dinyctis' "Space Lane" takes us on a fascinating journey across space -- and perhaps further afield -- in this work -- that is huge in size -- to take in the incredibly detailed story of that journey. You really must see it at full size to fully appreciate it. If you have dial-up you might have to be satisfied with the default view on his page. (On deviantART you click on the image to get the full sized view.)

I am not sure that it is intended to be viewed all at once, but rather a bit at a time either starting at the top and working down, or from the bottom and working your way up. There is a seeming story-journey on this vertical mural image. I won't give away the ending and spoil it here.

dinyctis uses intense colour on black to good effect in his chosen media, computer graphic image. I think you will appreciate the details as well as the story-journey and will enjoy looking at other images in his gallery.

~ Darrell

¤ One would find it slightly odd that this artist would begin his piece and end his piece with the exact same frame and style. I find that quite perplexing -- and to be honest one has to find a reason to be captured by this image. The depiction of the galaxy is strategically placed in the best spot for eyes to be drawn into its very core. Other works that you might want to chew over are: "Nebular Playtime" and one entitled "Vessel". We all have a desire to reach for the stars -- this artist just takes it to whole new level.

~ Mags

Michal Karcz (Karezoid) - World of Sleepers

¤ "World of Sleepers" is a Photo Manipulation by Machal Karcz -- known as Karezoid on deviantArt -- who has his own site Michal Karcz Portfolio where the piece is found in his portfolio section under "Artworks" in the 2007 section where you can see it was used for an album cover for Davide Caprelli's "Respiro".

One's first impression of this talented artist's offering of creativity, could be seen as "blah", and somewhat melancholy. But then I lean forward in my seat and I see the analogy between the bleak darkness and the overwhelming paralysing effect that one encounters when they have any form of mental illness.

On the other hand however, one also wonders if the Moon in the middle of the field is carrying some extraterrestrial visitors coming to take this adventurer home.

~ Mags

When I have looked into a piece of artwork -- I had to search a little to find the actual artist having found the piece without credit to the artist given -- and find that it was used for something like an album cover or book cover -- I wonder which came first, the chicken or the egg. Did the artist create the piece for the project, or did they have the piece already done and when asked to do the project say, "I have the perfect piece of art to use for that already."

Perhaps it doesn't make much difference other than if the artist was asked to create a piece of artwork for a cover, how much was the project driven by someone else's needs and desires? The talent and skill of course are still the artists.

In either case, I love this interesting composition of photos in a photo manipulation. I read somewhere someone putting a caption to it - "NASA, the Moon has Landed." I think with photo compositions as well as any paintings a limited pallet can provide for a powerful piece. All the colour in this image fall in a certain range, yet it does not seem limited at all and is a powerful composition.

An empty field under a moody sky can provide for a very lone and empty feeling -- almost similar in some ways to empty space and perhaps the Moon might be at home there. It also reminds me of some odd lamp lighting the field. Is the lone figure out standing in his field taking a picture of this moon he has found?

The Moon fallen into a field -- that's going to leave a bit of a mark... a bit of a crop circle especially if it starts rolling around.

~ Darrell

It might be interesting to compare this with Pauline Jones' "With a Soft Thud" (Image to left) reviewed earlier in Blended Realms.

Pauline Jones - With a Soft Thud

"With a Soft Thud" is from Pauline Jones' website "Images of Elsewhere". It can be found in the 10th Gallery there. Pauline Jones has another site where she has more recent works at "Pauline Jones: a painter"

A lonely beach, perhaps just after dusk and what do we find on the sands? Perhaps the crescent moon having fallen from the sky?

It makes me wonder if that makes the image even lonelier with the few lone pines a bit separate from the other trees farther back. I can't quite make out if those are the lights of a harbour town across the waves or people with lanterns in boats approaching? If they are people in small boats approaching, are they people who are approaching to help the crescent moon as if it were a beached whale needing rescuing?

The dark rows of thin yet still dark clouds and the flat waves on the water lend to a moodiness that is repeated by the blues of the pallet that the work is done in. It does remind me of some evenings I have spent on beaches with an uncertain breeze on water and in trees.

Pauline Jones puts a lot of feeling into her works and I enjoy what I have seen. There is a lot of variety in her galleries.

~ Darrell

I find this piece of artwork by Pauline Jones to be visually stimulating. My immediate response to this creative inspiration has this luminescent crescent moon fallen from another planet's solar system -- as it looks like it has haphazardly landed upon our shores. Maybe some other planetary creature is missing its home because it has now crashed down here.

~ Mags