Gemma Koomen: Beauty, Joy, Enchantment

Come along — let’s enter UK artist Gemma Koomen’s peaceful, gentle miniature world. It’s an enchanting place where fairies, gnomes, birds, bees, and busy little people co-exist, a place where you’re invited to linger, look around, and appreciate nature’s small wonders. Such a welcome balm from stressful, noisy, oftentimes chaotic modern times!

Author-illustrator Gemma Koomen in her studio (photo by Eva Nemeth/91 Magazine).

Having grown up in the Scottish countryside, Gemma has always felt a deep connection with the natural world. Both her parents were artists, and she’s loved drawing since childhood. She distinctly remembers getting lost in imaginative narratives of her own making (many with fairytale motifs), that made her aware of the power of art. She was especially fond of Richard Scarry’s Busy Town books and avidly studied the small worlds and characters in those stories.

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robin pieterse’s dreamy world

Dutch artist and pattern designer Robin Pieterse’s lovely paintings provide a welcome respite from the busyness and stresses of modern life. Inspired by nature, the changing of the seasons and childhood nostalgia, her depictions of people spending time together — whether indoors or out — are calming and restorative.

Robin Pieterse lives in the Netherlands with her husband, son, daughter, and dog Winifred.

Based in Zutphen in the Netherlands, Robin (b. 1999) comes from a “wildly creative family,” where “everyone was always working on something beautiful.” She can’t remember a time when she wasn’t drawing and loving it. Her mother is a landscape painter and art teacher; Robin says it is scary “how much of a copy of her I am.”

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karen fields: of color, canines, and coastlines

Ruff ruff! The sun’s out and the water’s fine. Let’s dip into some of Karen Fields’s happy-making paintings.

Based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, Karen’s been interested in art since childhood. When she was little, she’d watch her dad at his drafting table in his attic studio. When he wasn’t looking, she’d use his shape templates to create drawings of her own.

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Eric Joyner’s Fantastical Robots and Donuts

Hungry for a donut? This friendly blue robot is ready to take your order. Thanks to San Francisco artist Eric Joyner, they’re all baked to perfection fresh on the premises.

Pre-Joyner, I was pretty ho hum about robots. They seemed cold, mechanical, and well . . . robotic. Nothing warm and fuzzy there.

But the more I looked at Eric’s playfully surreal, uber imaginative, sometimes bizarre paintings, the more fascinated I became with his pop/sci-fi/nostalgic world showing robots and donuts interacting in all kinds of fascinating scenarios.

So why robots and donuts, and how did they become his signature motif?

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alison dickson blues

Time once again to bask in the blues, this time courtesy of Edinburgh-based artist Alison Dickson.

Originally from Northern Ireland, Alison paints landscapes and still lifes with a primary palette of blues and greens.

Edinburgh artist Alison Dickson.

All of her paintings are inspired by the natural world; landscapes and seascapes under weather-laden skies are a common theme.

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