Two very different approaches to magical realism in painting

January 14, 2018 7:10 AM

Rob Gonsalves was a Canadian artist who produced a delightful series of paintings that were part optical illusion, part flight of fantasy. Andrea Kowch paints magical realist pictures of women in rural landscapes. Her work has been described as like a cross between Andrew Wyeth and Alfred Hitchcock.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (13 comments total)

Wow, I love the Andrea Kowch pieces. Thanks for sharing!
posted by misskaz at 7:52 AM on January 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

The woman swinging in the moonlight is my favorite.
posted by jonnay at 8:03 AM on January 14, 2018

Man, they could do an entire expansion for Dixit using just Rob Gonsalves' work. Love it!
posted by xedrik at 8:42 AM on January 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

And just wow from start to finish. Thank you for giving me my new favourite artists.
posted by Lizard at 9:15 AM on January 14, 2018

I really like Kowch’s work, especially “Queen’s Court”. I could stare at that for a long time.
posted by Doleful Creature at 9:39 AM on January 14, 2018

Oh, I love Gonsalves' work! I'm looking at these on a small tablet, and some of those worked so well with the scroll down.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:17 AM on January 14, 2018

I loved every painting by both artists. Real dreamscapes I could get lost in. Thanks for posting these.
posted by mermayd at 10:37 AM on January 14, 2018

Loved them all - thank you for the post!
posted by rtha at 10:54 AM on January 14, 2018

Andrea Kowch seems to be doing "Andrew Wyeth's 'Christina's World': Theme and variations". But why not? Who doesn't love "Christina's World"? And she rings some brilliant changes. The painting of the young woman running from the big red barn is instant American classic. Museums should be fighting for these things.
posted by Modest House at 2:15 PM on January 14, 2018

Aw, it was disorienting and kind of sad to see the past tense applied to Gonsalves.
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:27 PM on January 14, 2018 [7 favorites]

The women and the tornado in the background--shades of the three witches!
These are compelling.
posted by BlueHorse at 6:32 PM on January 14, 2018

Now that was interesting, each in it's own way. Thank you for sharing.
posted by TrishaU at 10:23 PM on January 14, 2018

Earlier this year I went on a splurge and bought all three Gonsalves books for my library (after admiring some random saved /r/pics post of his works for far too long) as well as buying a 2018 calendar of his artwork to display for fun in my cubicle; I've received some great compliments from it so far in its brief time pinned up-- more than my Treehouse or rescued pets (from a local rescue shelter I donate to) calendars ever received.
posted by Baphomet's Prime at 8:04 AM on January 15, 2018