MicroVisions

Irene Gallo has just posted that MicroVisions 4 auction is open! MicroVisions is a fund raiser for the Society of Illustrators scholarship fund. The idea is that several talented and well known artists create and donate 5"x7" works of art to be auctioned off. So far they've held the auctions through eBay. This is really cool because it allows anybody with an eBay account to have an opportunity to bid and win one these items. In fact, I won a nice piece one year.

I recommend following the link to Irene's post for more information, but click here if you want to go directly to the list of items being auctioned off.

All the pieces look good, but for me, the stand out items this year are from: Gregory Manchess, Michael Whelan, and Justin Gerard. (All those links go directly to their respective eBay pages.)

Gregory Manchess (website) is an established artist and illustrator. Even if you don't know him, you have very likely seen his work since he has done illustrations for many magazines (National Geographic being a notable example) as well as book covers. He has an energetic, painterly style I enjoy. I always look forward to seeing more of his work. I think his soaring spaceman would make an inspirational piece of art to have hanging around your home.

Michael Whelan (website) is an "old" favorite of mine. I discovered him through his book covers to the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn fantasy trilogy from Tad Williams, but he has done much more than that. Just go to your favorite bookstore and browse the fantasy and science fiction section. You will easily find his work gracing the covers of many of those books. He's one of those illustrators with the exquisite ability to distill a book's contents to a single, symbolic image while retaining wonderful compositions that make you want to find out what's the story behind that image. From what I understand, he has been focusing more on his "fine art" work, and his MicroVisions entry is a nice example of that. If you'd like a piece of art that makes you wonder and contemplate, I think his entry would be a way to go.

Finally, Justin Gerard (website) is a recent favorite of mine. I discovered him by browsing the internet. I follow various artists' blogs, and those artists inevitably will lead you to other artists. I'm sure that's how I found out about Justin. I wrote about his series of Hobbit paintings a while back. He has since updated his website's gallery with those paintings. Those are definitely worth checking out. Additionally, Justin went the extra mile for MicroVisions. Although he only entered one painting, he actually painted several and chose one. I personally think he chose very well. His introspective portrait of a dapper looking faun is fun and mysterious.

So, if you've ever wanted to own some original art work from talented illustrators, now's your chance!