_Paint Pens in Purses_female urban art collective

Lauren YoungSmith is an artist and writer from Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Stanford University and works as a freelance illustrator. Her projects have included work for Juxtapoz Magazine and DreamWorks Animation. We love her style; its distinctly dark attitude, fraught with monsters, ghosts and sea-creatures. The images featured here are from her Monster Month series. To see more by visiting her website or find her via Instagram (@laurenyes).

You can see more of her work, in person, at this Friday’s opening of the Paint Pens in Purses’ curated show, “Night Visions: Documenting Creatures of the Night” at Big Umbrella Studios in San Francisco. RSVP & full info here.

Featured Artist ||| Margarita Surnaite (Vilnius, Lithuania) 

This week’s featured artist is Margarita Surnaite who is a Lithuanian artist studying illustration at Vilnius Academy of Arts. She creates colorful digital and traditional illustrations that range from playful to dark and eerie. Her work has dreamlike quality since it is often based on the visions that she has while daydreaming or right before falling asleep.

Her earlier art was influenced by pop surrealism movement; especially by artists like Mark Ryden and Ray Ceasar. Margarita is interested in children’s book illustration and character design. She is inspired by music, animation, comics, and observing people and nature.

She is working on finishing a picture book for her BA thesis. She also started a sketch blog on Tumblr to house her daily sketches, doodles, drawings, etc.. Margarita currently resides in Vilnius, however, she will soon be moving to Cambridge, UK, for her master’s studies in Children’s Book Illustration.

To read more & see more visit Margarita Surnaite’s website, Facebook page, and blog.

Featured Artist ||| Jessica Fortner (Toronto, Canada) 

Here are few favorites from the 2013 artMrkt at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. I was surprised to see so many of these great galleries were based right here in San Francisco. Here are the artists and galleries from left to right, top to bottom.

1. Hyon Gyon Park, Shin Gallery (New York, CA)
2. Taro Hattori, Swarm Gallery (Oakland, CA)
3. Joel Daniel Phillips, Spoke Art Gallery (San Francisco, CA)
4. Jess Hess, Spoke Art Gallery (San Francisco, CA)
5. Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth, Catharine Clark Gallery (San Francisco, CA)
6. Laurina Paperina, Fouladi Projects (San Francisco, CA)
7. David Mach, Forum Gallery (New York, NY)
8. Todd Hildo, Stephen Wirtz Gallery (San Francisco, CA)

This weekend, Paint Pens in Purses checked out the third edition of ArtPadSF…twice. Once on Thursday, May 16th and again that Sunday. The show, which takes place at the historic Phoenix Hotel, in the heart of San Francisco’s notorious Tenderloin District, is magic. For ArtPadSF, the entire hotel transforms; each room becomes its own gallery space. A small representation of great galleries from across the United States.

While I visited the Press Preview event on Thursday, I returned on Sunday to…umm…take more notes. I had a chance to sit poolside, take in the sun, drink complimentary Drambuie cocktails, and just feel lucky that all this was happening right in my own backyard. Magic. I left with lots of great photos and one major question…who do I need to contact to suggest they change the name of next year’s event to “ArtMagicSF”. Just kidding.

Anyway, here are the Paint Pens in Purses Top 8. A small sampling of some of our favorites we saw at Art Pad SF.   

1. Sandra Yagi, Bash Contemporary (San Francisco)
2. Christopher Ulrich, Bash Contemporary (San Francisco) 
3. Sirron Norris, Three Point Nine Collective (San Francisco)
4. Cleon Peterson, New Image Art (West Hollywood, CA)
5. Stephen Eichhorn, Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art (San Francisco)
6. Derek Weisberg, Spoke Art (San Francisco)
7. Unknown, Unknown
8. Frederico Solmi, Luis De Jesus 
9. Matthew Greene, Artist Curated Projects (Los Angeles, CA)

Featured Artist ||| Chloe Edwards (Bowling Green, KY)

This week’s featured artist is Chloe Edwards. She holds the title as the youngest artist to be featured on Paint Pens in Purses. As I am about to turn thirty, the mantra that age doesn’t matter, is sounding better and better. However, I mention her age because this young lady, who is only nineteen years old, is extremely productive! She has a wide array of prints, a style of her own, and great characters. 

She is inspired by the anatomy of animals, horns, and fur. She incorporates vivid colors and line patterns with watercolor to create a cartoon and dream like quality to her creations.

Her future projects include some large scale collage pieces, involving wheat pasting, and a portrait watercolor series. Chloe Lee Edwards was born in Bakersfield CA, and was raised across the country, from Maryland to Bowling Green, KY. To see more of her work check out her website and her online store. 

 Article written by: Shayna Yasuhara

San Francisco Friends! Paint Pens in Purses will be at Artmrkt San Francisco Art Fair and ArtPadSF this weekend to check out all the galleries in town for the busy art weekend! Write up to follow…

OakCatVidFest x PPP 2013 Photos

Here are some of the photos from the Paint Pens in Purses Cativities table at the Oakland Internet Cat Video Fest. We loved all the fun cat creations that were made and we promise to make waaayy more cat cut outs for next year!