Femke Hiemstra

Femke Hiemstra uses thin layers of acrylics and water to create her surrealist paintings, sometimes adding colored pencil at the very end. Each painted stories takes creatures from the animal kingdom and places the in unexpectedly human situations.

I can get inspired by anything from music lyrics, a news item or someone’s weird nickname. I also get inspiration from animal behavior, nature, old packages with hand drawn typography, tattoo’s, old encyclopedias, firework wrappers, vintage toys, comics, Japanese woodblock prints, old Little Golden Books, (tin toy) collectables and the art of Max Ernst, Hieronymus Bosch and the engravings of J.G. Posada.

Shop Femke Hiemstra’s work

via Neatorama

Claire Tabouret / Makeup

Claire Tabouret‘s Makeup series could easily be taken at face value, little girls playing dress up and experimenting with their mothers’ cosmetics and captured in the immediate aftermath. But the paintings also seem to have a bit of a sinister side – is that really makeup?

Nam Chau

German-Vietnamese artist Nam Chau focuses on memory and heritage in her misty paintings of places she’s never actually been. Each piece takes on the look of an aged photograph that’s being recreated in the mind’s eye, while the lack of facial features adds to the mystery and intrigue.

Justin Duffus

Justin Duffus‘s paintings aren’t straight-up creepy like some of the other artists we’re featuring this month, but the lack of facial definition he favors leaves a lot to the imagination. The blurriness of each piece makes you wonder if you’re viewing them in a dream or after you’ve woken up from a nap.