James Maybe

by psychedelic color machine and master of presumably ironic or parody display blatantly overused cheesy symbolism Oliver Hibert.

Once insanely famous, now mostly forgotten 16th century Italian painter Guiseppe Archimboldo painted fruit people, including the woman above, known as “Summer” and one of four seasonal depictions.

Dave MacDowell mashes up Jules Winnfield and Eraserhead. The result is more violet, more violent.

By Aurel Schmidt.

If you remember Richard Scarry at all, it’s probably as an illustrator of cute bunnies for kids books. What you may not recall, if you ever knew, is that Scarry was an extraordinary painter as well. He created illustrations which went well beyond the simple line drawings of his Storybooks. Shown above is an illustration I scanned from The Rooster Struts, a book which also features stunning well executed paintings of monkeys, sloths and frogs.

A perspective drawing by streetpainter.

by Ryan Heshka.

a painted toy from Jason Jacenko.

by Kenny Scharf.

by Robert LaDuke.

I like this work by Skot Olsen quite a bit. He uses a portrait studio, dramatic background and realistic (but not hyper-realistic) style in his painting of the taught-faced, uneven-eyed Ed Leedskalnin, a Latvian-born eccentric who built the largest coral castle in southern Florida.

By Charlie Immer.