David O'keefe gallery

I recently spent a week in Florida and was able to visit the Gallery of David O'keefe in St. Armands Circle.  What a treat it was to see so many of his works on display. It was a gallery devoted entirely to David's caricatures and the best shop I had visited in a long time.  David was one of the speakers at the 2011 ISCA convention in St. Petersburg. He is so talented not only at capturing likenesses in different styles but also taking it to new levels by fully rendering his compositions.  I respect the "no photos" policy inside the gallery but wish I could have taken a few to share here.  If you're ever in the Sarasota area I recommend visiting his gallery.  Also, just down the street is the Wyland gallery which has very high end art and is well worth a look.
 

High school art panoramas

During our local fair I like to check out the high school art displays.  It's interesting and inspiring to see all the art that the young men and women create and all the ideas they have.

Mort's work

I saw this book at a sale this past Saturday.  The cover is by Mort Drucker and it's one I've never seen.  He is very near the top of my "favorite artists" list and was one of my artistic influences growing up (not that I ever really grew up - lets not get crazy here!).  Speaking of Mr. Drucker, I see that the book "MAD's greatest artists: Mort Drucker" is available for pre-order on Amazon.com and will be released in October.  Also, Jan Op De Beeck will have a new book out soon and Nate Kapnicky's "Beasted" book is out!  If you're not familiar with these artists you owe it to yourself to check em out.  I could go on and on about art books that inspire me but I'll leave that for another post.