With titles like Passion and Line, Pool Light, Seeing Red and over a dozen photobooks under his belt, Howard Schatz has won many fans in the world of photography. His distinctive underwater photos and the use of red heads in many of his works, have certainly made me a fan. He shares his website with his wife and business partner, Beverly Ornstein. Pay a visit to Shatz – Ornstein and also take a walk down to a decent bookstore and take a look at one of his many books.

The ASFA, which is a nonprofit educational association, have a great website which promotes Science Fiction and Fantasy based Art. Its membership is made up of amateur and professional artists, art directors, publishers, collectors and anyone who has an interest in genre. The site features galleries and links, as well as being an information portal for the ASFA. The ASFA is responsible for handing out the Chesley Award. This award is named after Chesley Bonestell who is famous for his SF and astronomy based images. Visit the ASFA it’s a great website for some good info and art.

Artcyclopedia is a great art based reference site. It provides a well categorized list of links to websites featuring the work of many thousands of artists and art styles. The artists are grouped and listed by Name, Movement, Medium, Subject and Nationality. There is even a listing dedicated to Women Artists only. The Website also features articles, news, weblinks, galleries, links to Online Art Museums and other great reference materials. Please visit the Artcyclopedia to explore the world of art.

When I was in my teens, and still at secondary school here in London, I and a group of friends had developed a passion for fantasy art and comics. I picked up a book called “The Studio” which featured four artists: Jeffrey Jones, Barry Windsor-Smith, Michael Kaluta and Berni Wrightson. Of these artists, Jeffrey Jones was my favourite because his art spoke to me on a level which echoed my passion for the historical and romantic in ART. Whilst my early influences were from Graeco-Roman history and mythology, “The Studio” was to introduce me to celtic mythology and its influences.

Ever since then I’ve had a love for celtic art, crafts and mythology, and also for Arthurian legends. Much of this passion for art has manifested itself in a passion for collecting art books and artistically rendered comics. Jeffrey Jones is an amazing artist who has inspired many a young person to start their own journeys in art, please visit the Website of Jeffrey Jones to see some more great art.

The Art Renewal Centre is one of my favourite online galleries. It promotes and provides examples of art which features epic themes and in a classical style. It avoids modern or new art which is abstract, in form and nature. Whilst some of you may not agree with their philosophy, you will doubtless enjoy many of the classic pieces of art found on this site. The following 12 points from this mission statement, accurately communicates their philosophy and goals.

1. To create the largest on-line Museum on the internet, with hundreds of thousands of oversized high quality images of all the known works of the greatest painters and sculptors in human history, cross referenced to the largest encyclopedic online art reference library of historical texts, essays, biographies and articles.

2. To promote a return of training, standards and excellence in the visual arts.

3. To provide responsible views opposing those of the current art establishment when warranted, especially as expressed in critiques of current art exhibitions, and in aesthetic philosophy.

4. To disseminate the rich artistic heritage of 2500 years of accumulated knowledge in creating traditional, realistic images touching upon universal and timeless themes.

5. To advance the understanding that Great Art begins with great themes and expresses them poetically through mastery of all aspects of technique.

6. To repudiate the idea that development in art requires destruction of boundaries and standards, pointless emphasis on ‘newness,’ or pursuit of the bizarre and ugly as ends in themselves, and to expose as artistic fraud those works conceived only to elicit outrage.

7. To provide a technical and historical resource for artistic information, including referrals to experts.

8. To provide a forum for dialogue and exchange of expert information among educators scholars, curators, collectors and artists.

9. To promote scholarship and research on the artists of the past and the rediscovery and preservation of their techniques and methods.
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10. To establish basic visual literacy standards across the world. Drawing must be introduced as part of the core curricula in K-12 and developed progressively until high school and beyond.

11. To provide impetus for the reestablishment of high standards of performance in the visual arts of painting, drawing, and sculpture, and to promote the concept of recognizable quality as a primary criterion for the judgment of Fine Art.

12. To offer a platform for discussion – both scholarly and informal – on art history, aesthetics, technical considerations, art education and other related issues, and to maintain honesty and frankness in our interaction with everyone, regardless of predisposition.

Based upon these goals they obviously have strong views on the nature of art. I enjoy the art on this site and can honestly say, I’ve spent many hours looking and reading the materials here Enjoy…

deviantART is an online artistic community that I spend a lot of time exploring. There are some very good creatives who post their work at this web community and portal. With well over a million members wordwide, and having been around since it was launched in August 7th, 2000, it is a healthy and thriving community. With a name like deviantART, you’d think it would be seriously warped in nature, and whilst there are creatives who do have a distinctly dark overtone to their work, it definitely has a much broader creative appeal.

The site was created to serve as an artistic community and also to cater to the skinning requirements of DMusic. You can find the full story told here by one of the co-creators. dA now plays host to artists, writers, designers, photographers, skinners and other creatives. It provides hosting for wallpapers, skins, icons, images, photos, visualization presets, themes, art, tutorials and many other downloadables. With over thirteen million files or deviations, I daresay, you’ll be hard pressed not to find something you like. Visit deviantART now, you wont regret it.

I spend a good deal of time online and one of the sites I visit with any regularity is the Comic Art Community. I’m a big fan of comic art and the CAC is one of the better portals for being exposed to and acquiring original comic art. The website features auctions, messageboards, a decent gallery and an extensive directory of weblinks. It’s well worth a visit and if you want an excellent source for original comic art, this is it…

I created this blog to share the many cool sites and artists I come across on a day to day basis whilst browsing the web. I will attempt to review and link to sites which I feel meet my interests as an artist, designer and photographer.