Arielle Sandler

I think I might start to work with some themes and try to do posts about a few artists in a row who have similar themes. So, I'll start out with what I would call NeoImpressionism...maybe there is an official word for this term, but that's what I'll call it until I know a better term. Impressionism, as a lot of people know, was an art movement that started in the mid 19th century and continued until around the turn of the century. While a lot of people today think impressionism is kind of bland and old, it was a completely new style at the time, very radical and revolutionary.

 
Impressionist painters were accused of painting like children and kicked out of artshows and rejected from galleries. They were considered garish and simplistic. Today, I think there is a new form of impressionism emerging in all different mediums. Contemporary artists are taking what impressionism did, and abstracting everything even further until you just see shapes of colors or even better blurs...but there is just enough form left to let you know that it is something, not just an entirely abstract work of art. I think theses artists let us see how impressionist painters would have been seen in the mid 1800's. The first artist working in this kind of style that I'll feature is Arielle Sandler.

You may be thinking, oh I've seen paintings like this before, but if you look at Arielle's paintings for more than a couple of seconds, you'll start to feel that they're different. I think the difference is that she is painting something rather than just an abstract conglomeration of colors. All of her paintings are landscapes, and for me, they really feel like landscapes. Some of them seem urban, some seem like groves deep in the forest, others seem like canyons in the desert, but they all really do seem to capture a place.

Arielle also really pays attention to color. A lot of paintings that look a little like hers are just odd colors put together. But I think, maybe because she is painting a landscape, she gets all of these incredible shades, that seem to create light and mood rather that just a flat canvas. I love the few points of contrasting colors that are just enough to make the rest of the paintings seem even more vibrant.

Something that you can't see too well from these pictures is that Arielle really lays on the paint, some of her paintings are up to an inch thick. That's incredibly expensive and time consuming to do, but I love how it looks. You can kind of see the effect a little bit in the painting below. If you're in the market for one of Arielle's paintings, you might think they're a little expensive, but it's not a bad price for original artwork, especially when you consider the cost of the paint going into each painting.

Arielle grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and got her BFA at Washington University in St. Louis. Despite her young age, her artwork has been featured in many exhibitions, magazines, and books, and has even been part of the set design of several prime-time t.v. shows. You can see much more of her work at her website and you can buy her work by contacting her or at Beholder. 

P.S. If you go to Arielle's website, check out her collages. They're kind of like the collages I've been working on lately, at first I was kind of upset because I haven't seen anyone else working with collages in the same way, but they're really great. Every artist has moments, of "Ahh! I thought I was the only one!" :o) I love the idea of abstract collages that are more about shape and color than about layers of images. After a few posts of New Impressionists I might start a new theme about abstract collages.