What better way to start off my new blog than to showcase the art of one of my favourite artists, Glenn Arthur. Girls, melancholy, skulls and hummingbirds. What's not to love?
Rather than re-hash some trite biography that has been written and re-written across the internet I am going to let self-taught artist, Glenn Arthur tell you in his own words what his art means to him. When I approached Glenn with the idea of featuring him on my new blog his response was nothing short of "Does a chicken have a pecker?".
So people always ask me how I got started as an artist. It was actually quite simple. I had always doodled and sketched until a couple years ago one of my best friends literally dragged me to the art store, bought me some paints, a couple of brushes and a canvas and said to me, “You need to do this!” The rest is history…
Growing up in Orange County, California, Artist Glenn Arthur never had any formal art training and in actual fact has only ever taken one art class in life drawing and here he is in 2010 as both an emerged and accomplished artist. Arthur credits a lot of his inspiration from art nouveau design, human emotion, duality, neo-romanticism, Victorian imagery, pinups and comic book style art. If there's one thing Glenn Arthur isn't short on, it's emotion, and the real beauty it possesses. So when I hit him with the hard line question "do you get off on girls crying? ha. no really, why all the crying?" he responded
"Haha. I don’t get off on girls crying but I am a firm believer in expressing and showing emotion. I think too many people try to hide their feelings and that’s unhealthy. Let it out and let it go! Tears are healing!"
My dad did always say it's better out than in! Another recurring theme in Arthur's work is the presence of the hummingbird. Like women, another beautiful and fleeting creature. He found himself fascinated by them and how quickly in the blink of an eye they are gone. By painting them he is almost able to capture them and carry them with him. I guess the same can be said for the alluring female beauties he paints. A lot of the reference for his girls comes from fashion ads or life drawing references. Glenn always imagines the faces of his ladies and explains that he has a specific aesthetic in the way he likes to paint expressions.
What's next for Glenn Arthur? He is currently working on his next series of paintings titled “A Mechanical Seduction”. This series will be a blend of art nouveau design and steampunk imagery surrounding women and hummingbirds as the title characters in each piece. He will also be involved in multiple group shows throughout this and next year and his next solo show is planned for October 2011 in Washington DC.
Glenn is also currently working on opening an online store where he will have original paintings, drawings and prints available.
You can lurk Glenn and his amazing work online at:
