Bulgarian watercolorist Atanas Matsoureff has a deft command of the medium that allows him to be simultaneously exacting and free, textural and spare.

In his still life subjects, Matsoureff’s paintings have a feeling of quiet contemplation, in his landscapes, a sense of quietly observing and listening to nature, and in his figures and portraits, a striking feeling of texture and physical presence.

Matsoureff’s website is divided into sections for those subjects as well as sections for drawings and a separate gallery for book illustration.

[Via Jeffrey Hayes]

For reasons that are lost on me, concept and visual development artists for the film and gaming industries often go by “handles” (nicknames) when publishing their work online.

“Goodbrush”, AKA Craig Mulllins, is by either name one of the most recognized and respected artists in the field. He is also one of the first to move into digital painting, and remains at the forefront of the medium.

Since I last wrote about him, Mullins has launched a redesigned website that showcases the broad range of his subject matter and approach.

The “Quick Tour” section will give you an overview, highlighting selections from the other categories, and the other sections go into some depth, with numerous selections of his concept art, matte paintings, promotional work and various kinds of painted sketches and drawings.

In addition there are sections of his work in traditional painting media, oil and watercolor.

One of the things that always impresses me about Mullins’ work is his ability to leave out the inessential and suggest more than is there. Even in pieces that look very realistic, the actual rendering and detail are minimal; Mullins uses his superb control of color and just enough detail and textural elements to allow your eye to fill in the rest.

I also always enjoy his wonderfully playful explorations of light and shadow, contrast and highlights, with which he enlivens and energizes his images and commands the path of your eye through the composition.

Those of you who admire the work of great illustrators like Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth will easily find their influence in Mullins’ historical pieces.

Speaking of influences, don’t miss the downloadable PDF of John Singer Sargent’s notes on painting that Mullins has been kind enough to make available from this page.

For more, see my previous post on Craig Mullins (and here); I’ve listed additional resources below.

[Update suggestion courtesy of Will Kelly]

A few years ago, well known science writer Carl Zimmer was at a pool party with a scientist friend who studies genetics, and noticed a tattoo of DNA on his shoulder.

It prompted him to wonder if other scientists had similarly chosen to have tattoos related to their scientific pursuits. He put the call out on his popular blog, The Loom, and the responses became the basis of a feature he called the Science Tattoo Emporium (see my post from 2008).

Zimmer has now collected a number of the images into a book titled Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed.

You can see a few pages from the book on the Amazon preview, but you can view many more of the tattoos by browsing back through the posts in the Science Tattoo Emporium.

Instead of monsters and flaming skulls, we have tattoos of real animals, both prehistoric and extinct, and scientifically accurate skulls of various species.

In place of iconic hearts, we have biologically accurate illustrations of the human organ.

Throw in molecular structures of various compounds (in the example above, the molecule for LSD), planetary bodies, illustrations of the golden section laid out against a chambered nautilus shell, various scientific formulas and, of course, other interpretations of DNA strands — and you have a range of unusual and fascinating tattoo images.

Unfortunately, the tattoo artists, and/or the artists who created illustrations they may have worked from, aren’t credited.

New York based painter Andrew Jones finds beauty in architectural details, particularly those involving patterns like the iron railings that line the stoops in many of the city’s neighborhoods.

He also finds fascinating patterns in the complex shadows cast by railings across the multiple planes of stairs in bright sunlight.

The sections of his online galleries also include broader streetscapes, landscapes, European scenes and floral studies.

Note that in many of the galleries, there are multiple pages, particularly in the Iron Railings section. There are also archives of paintings in all of the categories.

Be sure to choose “Full screen image” at the right of the images to view the larger versions; Jones’ work is more painterly and rich in texture than is evident in the smaller images.

Jones’ paintings on on display in a solo show at the Salmagundi Club in New York until October 29, 2011.

The wonderfully idiosyncratic and beautifully rendered work of Bill Carman is on display in an exhibit at the Animazing Gallery in New York.

The show is called UnBalanced. It runs until November 30, 2011.

Yon can see more of Carman’s work on his blog and in his Flickr galleries for paintings, drawings, book illustration, editorial illustration and comic stuff.

For more, see my previous post on Bill Carman.

When I wrote an update on painter Karen Hollingsworth in early 2010, as a follow up to my original post from 2006, I was admiring her series of window paintings, luminous white-themed room interiors in which sunlight and air have a palpable presence.

Hollingsworth is continuing with that theme, but this year has introduced a new series in which she takes a dramatic turn, with room interiors that are dark, often to the point of being black, sometimes punctuated with the white spaces of open windows and focusing on sharply lit subjects.

In her choice of foreground subjects she had continued with themes of chairs, wooden floors and white cloth-covered tables, often accented with bright colors in the form of fruit. To these she has added a recent theme of birds, in flight or perched, that carry the careful geometry of her compositions into a different plane.

Some of the new dark compositions have a feeling of Vermeer’s window-and-object relationships. The different series have a fascinating degree of contrast and continuity.

Hollingsworth now has a book of her work, titled Windowscapes that was designed and edited by her husband, artist Neil Hollingsworth. You can see a preview of the book on Blurb; be sure to use the controls under the image to view the preview fullscreen.

Hollingsworth’s work is part of a three-woman show, along with Karin Jurick (see my recent post) and Suzy Shultz, at the 16 Patton Gallery in Ashville, North Carolina. The show opens tomorrow, October 22, 2011 and is on view until November 26, 2011.

In addition to her website, Hollingsworth now has a blog, also titled Windowscapes, on which you can find a preview of her work for the show.

Who would think that paintings of people with their backs to you could be so compelling?

When I first wrote about Atlanta based painter Karin Jurick back in 2006, one of the things I admired, in addition to her bright, fresh, painterly approach, was her series of paintings of art museum patrons, in situ, as it were, their backs to the viewer as they stood engrossed in the artwork before them.

This has turned out to be one of Jurick’s favored themes in the subsequent years, and she has recently published a collection of over 100 of those paintings in a book titled Museum Hours.

You can see a preview of the book on the Blurb site; be sure to use the controls below the image to view the preview in full screen mode, allowing you the pleasure of seeing Jurick’s work larger than it is usually reproduced on her site and blog.

The book has a nice feature in the form of an illustrated index of the paintings. In addition to the titles of her paintings, it lists the works being viewed by the patron, (of which Jurick has painted at least a partial interpretation), and the museums in which they are to be found.

Jurick’s work is part of a three-woman show, along with Karen Hollingsworth and Suzy Shultz, at the 16 Patton Gallery in Ashville, North Carolina that opens tomorrow, October 22, 2011. I don’t know how long it runs; the gallery’s website, such as it is, hasn’t been updated with show information and does a poor job of presenting the artists they represent. [Addendum: Jurick was kind enough to let me know the show runs until November 26, 2011. See also my recent post on Karen Hollingsworth.]

You can see a preview of Jurick’s pieces in the show on her website. She has chosen a theme of “New York Life” for her part of the show, and the selection includes some of her art patrons pieces, as well as other New York scenes (love the Flatiron Building).

Galactik Trading Cards are collectable cards printed with images of work from over 100 artists from the fields of visionary art, magic realism, contemporary surrealism, fantasy art and related genres.

Some of the artists are among the most recognized names in their genres, other are new or less well known. The initiative’s website has galleries of the cards, arranged in sets, though most of the newer ones can be purchased individually as well as in sets or by subscription.

The images in the galleries are linked to larger versions, which is particularly advantageous given the extraordinary level of detail in some of the images. You need to hover your mouse over the thumbnail images to see a tooltip style popup of the artist’s name.

There is even a “Holodeck” set of lenticular cards, each of which contains several images revealed as the card is viewed from different angles.

The link for “Collective” in the top navigation goes to a page with a list of the artists and links to their websites.

(Images above: Andy Thomas, A. Andrew Gonzalez, Vladimir, Ovtcharov, Martina Hoffmann, Luke Brown, Carey Thompson, Kinuko Y. Craft, Alex Grey)

[Via beinArt Surreal Art Collective]