Jonathan Burton is a British illustrator now based in Bordeaux, France. His clients include Time, Nature, New Scientist, The Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Folio Society, Penguin Books, Orion Books and many others.

He was recently called on by The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to create the images for their annual awards evening this year (images above, top four) in which he interpreted several contemporary films.

Burton works very effectively with a muted palette and subtle value contrasts. His illustrations vary in style, but often evoke a feeling of previous centuries, and frequently seem to have a wry smile behind them.

[Via MetaFilter]

Late Afternoon, New York, Winter by Childe Hassam.

A marvel of suggestion by a primier American Impressionist.

In the Brooklyn Museum. Click “Download”, then pick your size.

See my 2006 post on Childe Hassam.

The Reward is a nine minute animated short created by a team of animation students for their Bachelor Class project at The Animation Workshop in Denmark.

In addition to being beautifully realized, the story, about two rivals who must learn to cooperate in pursuit of a treasure, is told wordlessly in a demonstration of superb visual storytelling skills.

The film was created by a talented team of animators, storyboard artists, character designers, colorists, background artists, music directors and voice actors, led by directors Mikkel Mainz Ekljær and Kennith Ladekjær.

It can be viewed on the Animation Workshop’s page for Bachelor Class projects 2013 (thumbnail at lower right, other years projects here), on Vimeo or on io9.

[Via io9]

As I reported in my post about their article on How to Ship Paintings, Xanadu Gallery in Arizona features articles about marketing and other topics of interest to artists on their red dot blog.

They have just started to post the results from their second annual State of the Art Survey, in which they polled 1,155 participating artists about their experiences in marketing and selling their art.

While the survey is admittedly informal and unscientific, it still gives some insight into what artists (primarily in the U.S.) are experiencing.

Dame Alice Ellen Terry (Choosing), George Frederick Watts.

On Wikimedia Commons, title page here.

Original is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

A little Victorian morality play, choosing between the camellias, which are dramatically beautiful but don’t have a strong scent — representing worldly pursuits, and the violets, more subdued in appearance, but with a a stronger scent — representing the more subtle higher virtues.

The same year this was painted, the artist, then in his late 40′s, married the sitter, who was 17. The marriage lasted a year.

Since I first wrote about painter David H. Cunningham back in 2007, his web presence has been expanded and improved, and his work has continued to evolve, particularly into a new series involving arrangements of stones.

My initial impression of his work, however, remains unchanged. Though you may look at reproductions of his paintings and think of them as illusionary realism to the point of being trompe l’oeil, I’ve never gotten the impression that he deliberately set out to paint with that intention.

Rather, the sharp realism feels like a natural outgrowth of intense faithful observation, an incisive investigation of the visual world.

Cunningham’s paintings of stones, in both complex and simple arrangements, become both intimate landscapes and marvels of irregular geometry.

In addition to presenting his work more effectively, Cunningham’s new website allows for a blog-like series of short articles, in which he offers interviews with other artists as well as his thoughts on various aspects of art and painting, including “Why paint stones?“.

You can also find blog-like entries, including sketches and works in progress, on Cunningham’s presence on Tumblr and backspaces.

Though he started his career as a portrait painter, Philadelphia born artist John Francis is primarily known for the still life paintings of his later career.

These, mostly of fruit and desserts, varied from complex formal arrangements, sometimes against the backdrop of a partial landscape, to simple compositions of only a few objects.

Francis was largely self-taught, and though he was undoubtedly influenced by the other Philadelphia still life artists of the time, such as Raphaelle Peale, Francis developed a more immediate and painterly approach, unusual for the period. His palette was also lighter and leaned more toward bright yellows and oranges than those of his contemporaries.

[Via Still Life In Oils blog]

Is it the future yet?

I just love past visions of the future (particularly when the future is in our past).

The folks at Dark Roasted Blend, as they often do, have assembled some nice collections of retro future illustration — in this case past visions of future transportation, mostly culled from popular science magazines from the early 20th century — in a series of articles:

Retro-Future: Mind-Boggling Transportation
Retro-Future Transportation Showcase, Part 2
Retro-Future: Glorious Transportation Update

Art credits, unfortunately, are a bit spotty. In some cases links are given to image sources elsewhere on the web. They have also mixed in some more contemporary illustrations, but they’ll be outdated soon enough.

I can’t wait for 1973!