If you follow me on Instagram (@fairy.tree.studios), you may notice that I haven’t quite gotten it down yet. I post a bit sporadically and don’t use any of its other features (stories, IGTV, Reels) like I should. I’m kinda love/hate with Instagram in that regard, but one thing I do love about it is discovering other artists, in other parts of the world, whose art I might never have come across otherwise. I wanted to share a few of them here because I find them all inspiring in different ways, and you might too. Plus I can’t necessarily access/afford their art (especially originals) but it’s free for me to give them exposure, and I know how much it means when people do that for me. SO, without further ado, here they are in no particular order (links go to their Insta profiles):
- Xtina Gavrilova (Tula, Russia; @xtina_gavrilova_art) — architectural sketches and cityscapes — she uses color so loosely, yet so effectively.
- Yonghong Zhong (Portland, OR; @yonghong.zhong.9) — landscapes and still life paintings in which he makes amazing use of dramatic natural light.
- Jessica Durrant (Atlanta, GA; @jessillustrator) — mainly fashion illustration; she finds just the right details to make a piece look bold and dynamic.
- Ingrid Sanchez (London, UK; @creativeingrid) — her loose watercolor florals are so colorful and energetic — she does beautiful work with color and layering.
- Lin Ching Che (Taipe, Taiwan; @lin_chingche) — he does amazing night-time city scenes with impressive execution of all the building and traffic lights.
I focused on artists who mainly work in watercolor this time around, but perhaps in a future post I’ll share some of my favorites who are working in other mediums.
Who are some of your favorite contemporary artists? How did you discover them?
Next week for my studio check-in, I’ll share some of the fall pieces I hinted at in the text of my post above.
Fairy Tree Studios 