casagalleria

etsy shop: casagalleria
listing: Humble flower
artist: Katie Alleva

Katie is brand spankin' new to Etsy. I enjoy giving exposure to excellent artists who are new to Etsy. Since the inception of this blog three weeks ago, I have profiled several new Etsyians including lesbusstudio, nayarts, BergmansBear, phraser, littlehalfhead, polaroidsandpinholes, finalapproach, and louisartworld. Now I can add Katie Alleva's casagalleria shop to that great list.

Katie's shop features delicate collages depicting organic forms in basic geometrical forms. The modest size of the pieces lend a personable touch which compliments the discreet and friendly subject matter portrayed in simple, unobtrusive forms resulting in a timeless, serene series.

From Katie's Shop Announcement and bio:

My name is Katie Alleva. I live in Australia and I have been in love with all things beautiful and arty for as long as I can remember!!!! My aim is to make art with integrity and with my heart.
The name Casa Galleria came from the idea of opening up my house as a gallery so I could exhibit without all the red-tape, commissions and consignments that commercial art galleries live by. I have Italian heritage so I was inspired to change 'House Gallery' to 'Casa Galleria.'

She has a couple photos of her home studio at her blogspot site. It's always interesting to see active studios.

BergmansBear

etsy shop: BergmansBear
listing: The Folding Field (oil on canvas, 12x9)
artist: Carrie Bergman

Upon first viewing Carrie Bergman's "The Folding Field", it's clear this is no ordinary landscape. Mysterious spike forms gather below an even more mysterious architectural form resembling a house or barn hovering in an ominously, yet active gray sky.

Carrie Bergman's Etsy Description for "The Folding Field" expands on the story:

This is a place where the land is bored with being flat. It wants to stretch up into the sky. The sky also wants to be closer to the land; it is forming a shape of a house or tent to shelter the little land-spikes. The severe shape of the land-spikes looks unnatural, but after making this painting I learned that there are undersea mountains (seamounts) shaped like this.

This relationship between land and sky is seen in her other paintings. Some scenes are tranquil. Others share similar enigmatic settings with "The Folding Field". I was tempted to feature one of Carrie's circle paintings. That series is rich in symbolism, but I will save that feature for another day.

michelleramin

etsy shop: michelleramin
listing: Chocolate Landscape
artist: Michelle Ramin

Ok, honestly, I'm not doing this on purpose. I'm not specifically seeking out art from Portland. It's pure coincidence that 33% (3 out of 9) of the art features on this blog thus far feature art from that city. I think that says a lot about the great art community that resides in Portland. Artist Michelle Ramin expresses her inspiring love for Portland in her etsy bio:

Hello! My name is Michelle and am a Portland, Oregon artist. I grew up in the comfortable rolling hills of Central Pennsylvania. About two years ago, I found myself wondering across the country in search of a creative muse. I came upon Portland and have yet to experience its equivalent anywhere else in the world. It's beautiful here! Every day I feel inspired and am constantly working on new and beautiful little pieces that reflect my every day environment.

A large majority of Michelle's etsy shop features landscape drawings. It's interesting to relate her love of Portland to her transcendental, otherworldly drawings. I call it quietly vibrant Surreal Pop. Consistently throughout, delicate horizontal lines shimmer across the horizon while crisp lines define the labyrinthine sky while falling from the sky. It's a uniquely curious exploration of the abundant natural beauty found in Oregon.

sarahkamsler

etsy store: sarahkamsler
listing: alternate channels
artist: Sarah Kamsler

Based in Portland, Oregon, Sarah Kamsler surely has some great inspiration and it's apparent in her paintings. Nature is prevalent throughout her work with trees often being the focal point.

Consistently throughout her work, Sarah's paintings have a certain playful, yet spiritual feel to them. It's a curiously equal combination of the two that's rarely seen in the art world and Kamsler makes it work. Art that attempts to fuse both elements of playful and spiritual often heavily lean towards one direction or another. It's this duality that causes me to reflect how her paintings came to this point.

Sarah paints her trees in a simple, yet profound iconic manner. They can be interpreted as trees or as arrows boldly pointing to the heavens.

The trees are seen doing different things within each environment. Sometimes they're grounded in the earth. Other times they dance about in the sky. It seems these trees, despite their iconic state, have different lively personalities.

Trees are an easy thing to overlook in our society. After all, we see them everywhere from parks to parking lots to street corners. In her paintings, Sarah Kamsler reminds us that trees and nature offer boundless reflections of the variety of all forms of life from environment nature to human nature.

equivoque

etsy store: equivoque.etsy.com
listing: each day we begin again
artist: Elinor Scott-Sutter

There's a great deal of fantastic art on etsy. It was difficult selecting the very first piece to be featured on etsyart.com until I came across this photograph by photographer/poet/Unix systems admin, Elinor Scott-Sutter. The title is appropriate: "each day we begin again". Among the current 32 items for sale in Elinor's etsy shop are about a dozen dynamically tranquil photographs of Lake Superior.

From Elinor's shop announcement:
I am not as much interested in photographing people, places, or things as I am in photographing light. Light is what interests me. It is what inspires me. After that, I am interested in the ways in which different media record those instances of light. Vintage and toy cameras used in combination with a variety of films are among the tools I love best, though I do enjoy working with digital cameras and Adobe Photoshop as well. My interest in Polaroid photography, however, easily eclipses my affinity to all other camera and media types