Next time you walk down to the corner café, take a second look at your surroundings. Can you see the beauty in the worn brick, street lamps and neon signs?
Zakary John Fellman makes it a point to find and highlight those special, often overlooked details in his stunning oil paintings.
Currently living in Winona, Minnesota, Zakary is a stay-at-home dad and professional artist. As a true contemporary realist, Zakary deeply loves painting the world around him. He especially enjoys bringing the “little corners of life” to our attention. Many of these little corners are in his hometown and across the river in neighboring Wisconsin.
Zakary uses expressive texture, light and color in his oil paintings. The painting below is one of my favorites, and successfully shows all three. Note the brushstrokes on the wall, street and even the sign. These give softness to a typically hard-edged urban scene. The street light casts an alluring glow, highlighting that beautiful texture. Zakary sticks with warm color tones, enhancing the scene’s intrigue.
This next image casts the same allure, but during the daylight hours. Zakary is able to capture an almost whimsical feel of these buildings, yet still bathe them in realism. It is this combination that makes them full of character and a magnet for attention.
This last image showcases Zakary’s love of color. The orange brick building (and blue sky) shout for attention on canvas, yet a passerby in real life would most likely not notice those vibrant hues.
Even with all the details in his street scenes, Zakary still keeps his compositions simple. He uses the bulk of the buildings to capture most of the space, while allowing the busy-ness of the street to become secondary. It’s a nice balance between the two.
So if you have a spare moment today, or just need a short break from wherever you are, I would encourage to take a walk through Zakary’s art blog and see more of his little corner of the world. You won’t regret it.