The Weirdest Most Bizarre Fantasy Art Creatures contest winners and other outstanding works in the genre

Observation by Jutta Maria Pusl

available for sale HERE

FIRST PLACE

In this post, we feature the winners of the Fine Art America contest, The Weirdest Most Bizarre Fantasy Art Creatures plus some other outstanding pieces.

But first, is our first place contest winner, Jutta Marie Pusl from Germany. She is not a member of our group, but she is an accomplished artist in painting, photography and digital art. 

The scene she has depicted here could be underwater as much as above ground. 

This piece won best of contest for "Surreal Art for Home and Office" in March 2016. Is it no wonder that she won this contest too?

Here is what this piece can look like framed:

framed prints available HERE

choose size, type of frame and mat from drop-downs

this frame is CUL5 under green frames and the mat is palm beach white

Here is what this piece looks like as a tote bag:

tote bags available HERE

you can choose background colors from the drop-downs

This colored background is: #08848c

Here are our other winners:

Dust Bunny by Jeremy Martinson

available for sale HERE

SECOND PLACE

Incidentally, Jeremy Martinson was our first place winner for this member contest of fantasy artists. His work is consistently good. That is why he also shared the third prize in this contest with Kathy Kelly with his "Sock Monster":

Sock Monster by Jeremy Martinson

available for sale HERE

THIRD PLACE TIE

Skin Deep by Kathy Kelly

available for sale HERE

THIRD PLACE TIE

Art Mechanicha by Andrey Poletaev

available for sale HERE

HONORABLE MENTION

The next pieces were too good to leave out of the post. There were so many outstanding pieces, and too many to show, so the following are just a few of them.

The next one, called "Cowchina", almost made it to third place, and for the first few days it seemed like it might win first and second place (members of Fine Art America do the voting):

Cowchina by Laura Brightwood

available for sale HERE

Catfish by Vsevolod Poliohin

available for sale HERE

Lizard of Oz by Catherine G McElroy

available for sale HERE

Balancing Act by Hans Neuhart

available for sale HERE

Beautiful Freak by Ali Oppy

available for sale HERE

(incidentally, Ali's art is in our banner)

Lion Man by Carol Cavalaris

available for sale HERE

Hawkish by James W Johnson

available for sale HERE

Napolean Bird by Nick Eagles

available for sale HERE

Morph by Brian Wallace

available for sale HERE

Xenofem by WB Johnston

available for sale HERE

Mossman Tree Stump by Martin Konopacki

available for sale HERE

These next ones seemed to have a beauty and magic to them:

Colorful Hummingbird Song by Mihaela Pater

available for sale HERE

Rainy Summer Day by Mihaela Pater

available for sale HERE

A Forest Overture by Rosemary Smith

available for sale HERE

Steampunk - Nautilus - Coming Out Of Your Shell by Mike Savad

available for sale HERE

The Mariner by Jeff Gettis

available for sale HERE

To see all of the artist's work who submitted to the contest, check it out HERE.

Our group page: Fantasy for the Home and Office 

Thank you for visiting. Our next contest will be called "The Sweetest, Cutest Fairies You Ever Saw" to contrast with this one (LOL)!

(note: the fairies contest has taken place and is available for viewing HERE)

Member Feature: Rebecca Wang and her Celtic Horse

Celtic Horse teeshirt -- original art by Rebecca Wang

(available for sale HERE)

Rebecca says of her piece in her description:

Although I title this "Celtic Horse", it is more of a Celtic-inspired horse, with spiral designs. You can call it a spiral tribal design or even a zentangle design if you want.

She is one of our featured artists for awhile on our group page HERE. 

You can also buy archival prints and other products in this design HERE. 

Here is what her piece looks like framed:

note: the copyright watermark in lower right will not appear in the actual image.

Framed prints are available HERE. Use drop-downs to get the right size, 

color of the frame, and color of mat.

Some other featured pieces will be highlighted as time permits. Thank you for viewing. 

Fantasy Castles winners

Castles in the Clouds by David Griffith

(available for sale HERE)

FIRST PLACE tie with Ali Oppy

Floating Kingdom by Ali Oppy

(available for sale HERE)

FIRST PLACE tie with David Griffith

The Fine Art America way of running contests is to award first prize to the under-dog that pulled ahead at the last moment, even though he tied with another member. However, these two artists both received the same number of votes, so they both tied for first place as far as placement is concerned. So they are both being featured.

And in fact, these are also the two artists' who are featured in our banner art above. Their work is also consistently recognizable.

Both of these castles have a dreamy atmospheric quality to them with much of the same sort of background color palette. They are both relatively symmetrical pieces as well. All of this, plus their expertise at creating detailed interesting images may have contributed to putting their pieces on top.

David Griffith is a master of digital art. In his description he tells how he made his piece using several thousand components:

This castle was created in Bryce v4 and is constructed entirely of cubes, cones, cylinders and I believe three spheres. This is not a model and there are no parts or pieces of models anywhere in it ... there were several thousand individual elements used in its construction.

~ David Griffith

Ali Oppy is also a master of digital art and her signature pieces tend to be dreamy, feminine, fairy-like and monochromatic with a lot of details. 

This castle is a little less monochromatic than her other work, but the color palette seems to be carefully chosen in terms of letting three colors dominate the image-making: grays, greens and rust. If you look closely at the piece, you will notice that the rust areas are "the creatures": notably a hooded figure with an insect-like creature at his (or her) feet, and a dragon off in the distance on the other side of the castle. 

The originality of the concept of a kingdom floating around with moons, stars and planets probably put this piece on top too, in terms of "fantasy" -- we are all about fantasy art after all.

Ali says of her piece: 

What a place to be your own kingdom floating around the solar system

~ Ali Oppy

Here are some ideas for framing possibilities for these two pieces:

Ali Oppy's Floating Kingdom framed

(framed prints are available for sale HERE)

choose frames and mats using the drop-downs on the right of the image

This frame is GL8 with a manor white mat

David Griffith's Castles in the Clouds framed

(framed prints are available for sale HERE)

choose frames and mats using the drop-downs on the right of the image

This frame is PLC8 with olde gray mat

Here is what these two pieces look like as pillows:

Castle in the Clouds as a pillow

(pillows available HERE)

background colors are adjustable. This one is #546783

Floating Kingdom as a pillow

(pillows available HERE)

background colors are adjustable. This one is #686868

Next up are our second place winners (also ties) and a third place winner (another piece by Ali Oppy), and one honorable mention:

The Forbidden Palace by Richard Hescox

(available for sale HERE)

SECOND PLACE tie with Bonnie Cook and Elenarts - Elena Duvernay

Castle by Night - 3D Render by  Elenarts - Elena Duvernay

(available for sale HERE)

SECOND PLACE tie with Richard Hescox and Bonnie Cook

King's Garden by Bonnie Cook

(available for sale HERE)

SECOND PLACE tie with Richard Hescox and Elenarts - Elena Duvernay

The Dragon's Castle by Ali Oppy

(available for sale HERE)

THIRD PLACE

The honorable mention goes to:

Misty Morning at Castle Ruins by Natalia Rudzina

(available for sale HERE)

Link to our group, Fantasy Art for Home and Office

On our discussions page we list by category if you are looking for a specific kind of fantasy art. 

The art contest and all of the pieces entered are THROUGH THIS LINK.

Thanks for reading. Our next contest is "The Weirdest, Most Bizarre Fantasy Art Creatures". That one will be decided on March 26th, so come back to see some of those creations! (note and edit: this contest took place and is available for viewing HERE).

Fantasy Art Members Spotlight winners, plus showcase of some of our other members

Into the Bog by Jeremy Martinson

FIRST PLACE SPOTLIGHT

(this piece is available for sale HERE)

This was a "juried contest" of our members (Fantasy Art for Home and Office group). It was a chance to spotlight our members and it was difficult to choose among so many great images. So many of them are simply excellent and I think it defines the type of talent in the group.

So this post is largely about highlighting some of our artists from the group, with some picks for first, second and third place in the contest. These picks are largely subjective and based on originality as I was accostomed to do when I worked as a curator in NY. 

Because choosing was so difficult, and because originality was in abundance (it is a fantasy art group, after all!). I focused on works, for this go-round, of styles, sentiments and ways of working that I hadn't seen before, or hadn't seen much of. Of course, there were more than the three top winners that also came very close, so I kept going, revealing the process of choosing.

Jeremy Martinson was my pick for first place because I hadn't come across this style of fantasy art in my art explorations and knowledge of "contemporary art history". The combinations presented in the piece (newspaper hats, soft modeling of the boat, lighting, treatment of water, serpent like being wrapped around the boy's stick) were entirely new for me.

It also seemed evocative of a fairy tale, very fitting for fantasy art.

And indeed, Jeremy Martinson made a fairy tale to go along with the piece. In his description he writes:

Their adventure had begun when they accidently stumbled upon a forest meeting of the fae. To elude capture by the faery king and forever be trapped in the magical realm of the fae, they had to escape. Befriending a gnome, with the promise of candy if they were successful, they made their escape. Snipperpop the gnome warned the boys, that the only way home would be through the swamp, and that it was dangerous. He agreed to help guide them if only for a little extra candy and perhaps some bubble gum. So they went, with Snipperpop, into the bog...

Following are some framing possibilities for this piece. You can find framed prints HERE and then choose from the drop-downs which frames and mats fit your fancy.

This one is a simple black frame (444BKS) with a white mat:

This one is another black frame (GG1) with some gold trim and a white mat:

This next one is in the gold category. It is brown with a gold braided trim (G) with a manor white mat: 

This is what it looks like in a pillow design:

When ordering pillows, you can use the slider to adjust the picture size.

Pillows found HERE

Jeremy's piece will also be featured on our side panel for two months.

We also have a second place winner and a third place winner:

This is a digital collage. The originality of the headdress (as a shell), the lovely monochromatic coloring, the slow emerging of the figure, and even the background are given a lot of detail and thought. One thing about Ali's work is that it is recognizable anywhere: 

Wish on a Pearl by Ali Oppy

SECOND PLACE SPOTLIGHT

(this piece is available for sale HERE)


The simplicity of the message, sort of pop art-like treatment and the originality of including a planet in the background put this piece on top for me: 

Puppy Love by Marvin Blaine
THIRD PLACE SPOTLIGHT
(this piece is for sale HERE)

These were some of the runner ups. These were too good not to show here -- and some of them were hard to let go of for the top 3 (and I did struggle with the decision):

The originality of this next piece struck me, the swirl tree, the rendering of the figures and the somewhat Bosch-like "underworld" feeling:

Naked and Afraid by Hans Neuhart
(available for sale HERE)

The next two, painted by Richard Hescox, have some unusual and unexpected occurrences happening in foreground or background, and it seems to be a signature of his style. These are some of the finest fantasy art pieces I have seen anywhere:

Lady of the Waters by Richard Hescox

(available for sale HERE)

Dream Clouds by Richard Hescox

(available for sale HERE)

This next piece by Mike Savad was in the running too. Although I have seen pigs flying in other art pieces, I have not seen them in a plane like this, with a picture of a man with a clown-like nose on the side of it. The rendering was also excellent!  

Flying Pig - Plane - The Joy Ride by Mike Savad

(available for sale HERE)

Who wouldn't be enchanted by this piece? It is the cliff hard-edged waterfall in the ancient world of boats, that makes this piece original:

Parallelism by Psycho Shadow

(available for sale HERE)

This piece was hard to pass up too. All of those other-worldly objects in the sky! To me this was reminiscent of both Kandinsky and Bosch, but it has an originality all his own: 

Spring Vibrations by Vasko Taskovski
(available for sale HERE)

This next piece by David Griffith, although more traditional-style fantasy art, was in the running too as it is so well done, with a lot of details from the fire, the carving in the fireplace, the oriental-like carpet, the grainy floors, all with fantasy art creatures:

 The Library by David Griffith
(available for sale HERE)

The following pieces weren't in the running, but so many of them were so well done that it was impossible to leave them out of this post.

This piece was excellently done with lighting effects on the tiger (and I liked the sentiment too):

The Protector by Davandra Cribbie
(available for sale HERE)

Here are some of the more traditional fantasy art pieces that caught my eye:

Maiden of the Forest by Sharon Lisa Clarke

(available for sale HERE)

Poseidon by Henryk Gorecki

(available for sale HERE)

Nightglow by Putterhug Studio
(available for sale HERE)

Reading About Dragons by Daniel Eskridge

(available for sale HERE)

Talking to the Rabbit by Louloua Asgari
(available for sale HERE)

Pond Fairy by Sherry Shipley
(available for sale HERE)

And of course, these were too much fun to leave out:

Mistress of Dragons by Brian Wallace
(available for sale HERE)

Alien Waterscape by Brian Wallace
(available for sale HERE)

jury and curator for this round: Lise Winne

Other jurors will be chosen for other contests for our group, so that there is a level playing field.

Thanks for reading, and until the next time ...