Love This! #instalite #losangeles

Photography, instagram, paint, and sunshine--today's featured artist, Bradley Hankey, has combined some of my favorite things to create a series of gorgeous paintings that feel very #ofourtime.

Why? I'll let the artist explain his process and I think you'll understand: 

My paintings begin as photographs taken with my smartphone. I apply a filter to these images, changing the light in a way that feels similar to a vintage photograph. The altered image evokes the presence of a memory. I then upload these images to the social media site Instagram. The hashtags I use when I post the photographs online remain as the titles of the paintings. All photographs on Instagram are square in shape, and thus my paintings in this series maintain that format....

...I begin by coating the panel with gesso and preparing it for the drawing, creating the drawing from the printed photograph. I then mix colors and begin to paint. I find this process rewarding - transforming a snapshot, something that took seconds to record and post online, into a painting, an older and more traditional medium that is much more involved. A photograph can be reproduced an unlimited number of times, but a painting is an original, and cannot be reproduced, even by the artist. 

Beautiful, isn't it? The paintings each depict real scenes of LA that the artist captured with his phone--so very modern of him!

You can view some of my favorites below: 

You can see the rest of this series and view out more of Hankey's work on his website. And check out his Instagram feed to view the original photographs on which some of these paintings are based!

Anyone else feel the urge to travel to CA right about now? I know I do...