Ten Contemporary Painters Brandy Saturley Loves

I keep a list. Contemporary Painters to Love.

It is a growing collection of contemporary painters whose work catches my eye, stops me for a moment, and makes me want to look a little longer. Some artists land on the list because of their colour. Others because of their way of simplifying a subject, their graphic sense of composition, or the sheer confidence of their mark-making.

Recently, I looked back at my list and noticed something interesting. There is a definite visual thread running through it. I seem to be drawn to artists who aren’t afraid of colour. Artists who use vivid palettes, strong contrasts and bold shapes. I like figurative paintings and landscapes that are simplified in form. There is often something almost graphic about the way they render their subjects. Their paintings don’t simply describe the world. They interpret it, edit it and turn up the visual volume.

Sound familiar? Perhaps.

But I wouldn’t necessarily say these artists influence my own work. Influence is a complicated thing, and I have spent more than twenty years developing my own visual language around Canadian iconography, landscape, popular culture and the things I encounter in my travels. What I can say is that I love looking at their work. And as an artist, I believe that matters.

Artists are collectors of visual experiences. We are constantly looking. We notice colour combinations, compositions, gestures, textures and ideas. We file things away somewhere in the back of our minds. Sometimes those observations find their way into our work. Sometimes they simply remain there as things we admire. In my case, these are artists whose work I appreciate enough that I could happily live with a painting by them.

Ten Contemporary Painters to Love

1. Logan Maxwell Hagege

Hagege’s work immediately appeals to my love of bold, graphic imagery. There is a wonderful tension between recognizable subject matter and a highly designed approach to painting. His work has the visual punch of contemporary illustration while retaining the physical presence of paint.

2. Tony Thielen

Thielen has a wonderful ability to take everyday subjects and give them a strong sense of place and personality. His paintings have a confident graphic quality that makes the familiar feel fresh.

3. Ed Mell

There is something wonderfully monumental about Ed Mell’s paintings. His simplified forms, dramatic landscapes and powerful use of colour create an almost sculptural quality. He understands that you don’t need every detail to communicate a landscape. Sometimes the right shape says everything.

4. Malcolm T. Liepke

Liepke’s paintings demonstrate just how expressive a limited subject can become in the hands of a confident painter. His figures, interiors and portraits have atmosphere, gesture and a strong painterly presence. His work reminds me that contemporary painting can be both sophisticated and emotionally immediate.

5. Jenn Mann

Jenn Mann’s paintings have a visual intensity that I find compelling. There is colour, pattern, surface and energy, but also a sense of mystery. Her work invites you in visually before revealing more of itself.

6. Eyvind Earle

Although Earle’s career reaches back well before what we might call contemporary painting today, I can’t leave him off this list. His influence on visual culture is enormous, and his stylized landscapes remain extraordinary.

His trees, mountains, skies and architectural forms are reduced to elegant shapes and patterns. Colour becomes structure. Nature becomes design.

As someone obsessed with landscape, I find that endlessly fascinating.

7. Jen Stark

Jen Stark’s work is a joyful explosion of colour, pattern and movement. Her paintings and visual works seem to operate somewhere between abstraction, nature and optical experience.

There is an incredible sense of rhythm in her work. It reminds me that colour doesn’t simply describe an object. Colour can become the subject itself.

8. John Capitano

Capitano’s work has that immediate visual impact I find so appealing. Strong colour, simplified forms and graphic compositions create paintings that communicate quickly but reward longer looking.

That combination is harder to achieve than it looks.

9. Mitchell Fenton

Mitchell Fenton’s work has a wonderful balance between recognizable imagery and contemporary abstraction. His approach to shape and colour creates paintings that feel both familiar and unexpected.

I am always interested in that space between representation and abstraction. It is a place where a painting can begin with something recognizable and then take the viewer somewhere else entirely.

10. Zach Atticus

Zach Atticus brings another kind of energy to the list. His work demonstrates how contemporary painting can borrow from the visual language of popular culture, graphic design and illustration while still feeling distinctly painterly. That intersection is particularly interesting to me.

Contemporary Painters to Love: What Does This List Say About Me?

Perhaps the most interesting part of making a list like this isn’t the list itself. It’s what the list reveals. Looking at these artists together, I see a fascination with bold colour, simplified form, strong composition and recognizable imagery. I see artists who aren’t afraid to make a visual statement.

And maybe that shouldn’t be surprising.

My own work has always been driven by my fascination with Canadian iconography. I love taking something familiar and looking at it again through a different lens. A hockey mask. A Hudson’s Bay blanket. A polar bear. A west coast beach. A Newfoundland house. The subject may be familiar and the painting doesn’t have to be.

I also think there is something valuable about knowing what you love as an artist and not necessarily what you want to paint like. What you simply love to look at, there is a difference. I don’t need to paint like Logan Maxwell Haege, Ed Mell or Jen Stark to appreciate what they are doing. In fact, I think being able to admire another artist’s work without immediately trying to absorb it into your own practice is an important part of being an artist.

Sometimes you just get to be the audience, and sometimes you get to be the collector. This list is still growing, and I’m sure I’ll discover another painter tomorrow who deserves a place on it. For now, these are ten contemporary painters whose work I would happily spend more time looking at.

And yes, I would happily hang one on my wall, too.

Who would be on your list?