oil – Page 2 – TwistedSifter

The Detail in These Paintings by Leng Jun is Astounding (19 Photos)

He even captures the shadows cast by the sweater’s fabric on the skin

Leng Jun (冷军) is an influential Chinese contemporary artist best known for his hyperrealistic paintings and drawings. Born in 1963 in Sichuan, Jun graduated from the fine arts department at the Hankou Branch of Wuhan Normal College in 1984 and currently lives and works in Beijing.

The artist is renowned for the incredible detail in his works which can only truly be appreciated up close or with a magnifying glass. In the paintings and close-ups below you can observe the incredible precision of his paintbrush, even capturing the shadow cast by a sweater’s thread on his subject’s skin.

For more, you can follow his thoughts and works on Facebook. You can also see more paintings on WideWalls and China Cool Art

Artwork by LENG JUN (冷军)

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Alison Moritsugu Paints Idyllic Landscapes on Fallen Logs

The artist explores the juxtaposition and tension created by having an image of nature on a section or sample of real nature

In an ongoing series of landscape oil paintings on fallen logs, artist Alison Moritsugu explores the ‘juxtaposition and tension created by having an image of nature on a section or sample of real nature’. In a past interview, Moritsugu says most of her wood comes from the northeastearn US and are gathered from fallen trees after storms or from people who have cut down trees and are going to chip.

To insure her paintings are preserved for years to come, Alison will dry the wood for 5-10 years in her studio, also placing the wood in an anaerobic chamber to prevent bug damage. In her artist statement on her website, Alison adds:

These landscapes appear as an homage to the idyllic art of the Hudson River School yet, by viewing the painting’s surface, the cross section of a tree, any sense of nostalgia or celebration of nature is countered by the evidence of its destruction…

Painters throughout art history from the Northern Song, Baroque, Rococo and Hudson River School tailored their depictions of nature to serve an artistic narrative. Today, photoshopped images of verdant forests and unspoiled beaches invite us to vacation and sightsee, providing a false sense of assurance that the wilderness will always exist. By exploring idealized views of nature, my work acknowledges our more complex and precarious relationship with the environment.

Alison is represented by Littlejohn Contemporary in New York City. To see more of her artworks be sure to check out her official website at alisonmoritsugu.com.

Picture of the Day: Just the Base of an Oil Platform Being Towed Out to Sea

Nicknamed ‘Bullwinkle’, the steel base alone is 1,352 ft tall and is regarded as one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th century

Photograph by Shell via The ESA

In this unbelievable photo we see the colossal base of an oil platform being towed out to sea. Made from steel, the frame or base is known as a ‘jacket’ and the oil platform is affixed to the top. According to 2b1st Consulting, 95% of the offshore platforms in the world are jacket designed. In these situations water depth does not exceed 500 m (1,640 ft) and the platforms are anchored directly to the seabed.

This particular jacket was installed in 1988 by Shell in the Gulf of Mexico and was regarded as one of the most extraordinary engineering feats of the 20th century. The platform was nicknamed ‘Bullwinkle’ and was the world’s tallest oil rig at the time of construction. It is 150 ft taller than the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago and was built entirely in Texas before being towed, in one piece, 332 nautical miles to its final location.

Bullwinkle used 10 times the amount of steel as the Eiffel Tower and weighed over 50,000 tonnes. Construction of the jacket alone took 2.5 years and to tow it out to sea, an 853 ft long barge—also world’s largest at the time—was constructed. The entire project took over 5 years and cost over $500 million in the 1980s. Check out the fascinating video embedded below which provides a great overview of this remarkable engineering project.

via The Ecological Society of America

Troll A – The Tallest Structure Ever Moved by Mankind

Located about 80 km off the west coast of Norway is ‘Troll A’, a colossal natural gas platform and the tallest structure ever moved by mankind.

Located about 80 km off the west coast of Norway is Troll A, a colossal natural gas platform and the tallest structure ever moved by mankind. It’s construction is regarded as one of the largest and most complex engineering projects in history.

Operated by Statoil, the platform was towed over 200 km, from the village of Vats to the North Sea in 1996, where the event was a televised sensation in Norway.

The Troll A platform has an overall height of 472 metres (1,549 ft) and weighs 683,600 tons (1.2 million tons with ballast). The platform stands on the sea floor 303 metres (994 feet) below the surface of the sea and one of the continuous-slip-formed concrete cylindrical legs (the leg containing the import and export risers) has an elevator that takes over nine minutes to travel from the platform above the waves to the sea floor. [source]

The walls of Troll A’s legs are over 1 metre thick, made of steel reinforced concrete formed in one continuous pour (slip forming) and each is a mathematically joined composite of several conical cylinders that flares out smoothly to greater diameters at both the top and bottom. The concrete legs must be able to withstand intense pressure so are built using a continuous flow of concrete, a lengthy process that takes 20 minutes per 5 cm laid. [source]

Troll A was built by Norwegian Contractors for Norske Shell, with base construction beginning in July 1991 at a cost of $650 million USD. The base and the deck were built separately, and were joined in 1995 while the base was partially submerged. The base is a Condeep gravity base structure built from reinforced concrete. The Troll platform was towed over 200 kilometres from Vats, in the northern part of Rogaland, to the Troll field, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north-west of Bergen. The tow took seven days. [source]

Photograph by Bluemoose

Sources

– Wikipedia: Troll A platform
– Statoil: Troll Gas Field
– AkerSolutions: Troll A

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“Beer Goggles” Oil Painting Series by Christopher Mangan

“Beer Goggles” is a series of oil paintings by Christopher Mangan where the colors and reflection distortions get more and more abstract.

“Beer Goggles” is a series of four oil on canvas paintings by Christopher Mangan completed between December 2014 and January 2015. Mangan told reddit that he tried to progressively abstract the colors and reflection distortions with each successive painting.

He also explained that he used mostly Princeton round brushes of various sizes, saying the ‘trick’ was to work with paint that is very loose and watery in consistency. You can find the artist’s complete portfolio on his website, christophermangan.com

Beer Goggles One
December 2014| Oil on Canvas | 24 in. x 18 in.

Artwork by CHRISTOPHER MANGAN
Website | Facebook

Beer Goggles Two
December 2014| Oil on Canvas | 24 in. x 18 in.

Artwork by CHRISTOPHER MANGAN
Website | Facebook

Beer Goggles Three
December 2014| Oil on Canvas | 24 in. x 18 in.

Artwork by CHRISTOPHER MANGAN
Website | Facebook

Beer Goggles Four
January 2015| Oil on Canvas | 24 in. x 18 in.

Artwork by CHRISTOPHER MANGAN
Website | Facebook

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This Artist Only Uses Her Fingers to Paint and the Results are Amazing

Hyperrealistic Oil Paintings Looking Through Rainy Windshields

This Artist Only Uses Her Fingers to Paint and the Results are Amazing

In 2009 while living abroad, artist Iris Scott underwent a stroke of lucky laziness one afternoon when it was too hot outside. Scott opted not to pause on her painting to go clean brushes, deciding to use her fingers instead. It was this serendipitous moment that a new technique was discovered and would change the course of her artistic career.

After a few swipes of paint with her fingertips, Iris had discovered her own impressionistic style and she has not used a brush since. A full-time painter since 2010, Iris is represented by Cole Gallery in Seattle as well as Adelman Fine Art in San Diego.

On her website, you can find original artworks along with paper and canvas prints for sale. To keep up with her latest, be sure to check out Iris on Facebook.

Behind the Scenes with Iris Scott

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Portraits of an Aging Superhero

Born in Falun and now based in Stockholm, Swedish artist Andreas Englund is best known for his funny and realistic oil paintings of an unknown, ageing superhero. The ongoing series seeks to challenge the stereotype of the superhero. On his Behance project description, Englund states:

“I want to make pieces that communicate stories. With the storytelling key elements. That’s where the Superhero concept came to life. I wanted to let people get to know the man behind the mask and tell his story uncensored. My superhero is far from perfect but that doesn’t mean he is isn’t good. He’s just human. Perfect people are just boring and predictable and who wants that?”

While the selection below shows our anonymous superhero in his later years, the complete series ranges from the superhero’s first mission as a toddler to being an old man, still struggling with everyday trivialities.

Prints of most of Andreas’ work is available through his official website; framed or unframed and ranging from open editions (numbered), to limited and collector’s editions. Visit andreasenglund.com for more.

[via Behance]

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Artwork by ANDREAS ENGLUND
Website | Behance | Prints available

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Artwork by ANDREAS ENGLUND
Website | Behance | Prints available

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Artwork by ANDREAS ENGLUND
Website | Behance | Prints available

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Artwork by ANDREAS ENGLUND
Website | Behance | Prints available

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Artwork by ANDREAS ENGLUND
Website | Behance | Prints available

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Artwork by ANDREAS ENGLUND
Website | Behance | Prints available

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Artwork by ANDREAS ENGLUND
Website | Behance | Prints available

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Artwork by ANDREAS ENGLUND
Website | Behance | Prints available

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Artwork by ANDREAS ENGLUND
Website | Behance | Prints available

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Hyperrealistic Oil Paintings Looking Through Rainy Windshields

Gregory Thielker is an American artist currently living in Ewing, New Jersey. An accomplished painter, Thielker received his BA in Art History from Williams College, his Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from Washington University and has exhibited at numerous galleries across the country.

In a series entitled Under the Unminding Sky, Thielker uses oil on canvas to depict rainy landscape scenes through the front windshield of a car. A slightly distorted view many of us can relate to. As Thielker explains:

These paintings reflect my interest in the way that the road delineates and controls how we experience landscape. From the roadway perspective, we not only travel from one place to another, we see landscape in a varied and complex manner. I use water on the windshield to create a shifting lens for the way we see the environment: it both highlights and obscures our viewing. Perspectives slip and compress, while shapes and colors merge into one another. I also work with relationships between surface and depth, between flatness and illusion. These images are born out of real experience and have a close relationship with the medium of painting: its fluidity, transparency, and capacity for layering, mixing, and blending.

For more from Thielker, be sure to visit his official website below where you will find many more interesting series and paintings.

GregoryThielker.com