Post "Mid-century" artists

Ailsa Johnson, on my opinion, continues the rage of artists from "mid-century" period. Her style has something very close to the artists from 1950-1960-s: limited colour palette, geometrical and sometimes sharp shapes, mixture of lines. Nevertheless, this pictures look very up-to-date and shows that the artist usually uses observation for her creations. Johnson has an incredible series of pictures from Japan where she spent a few years. During that time she created very cool images describing culture, food and clothing of local people. She also use a rage of different drawing techniques which makes the picture even more alive and moving. Pencils and paint dashes work well for her pictures. In addition, on some pictures like these, there're no outlines on objects, but she use lines inside the object to show pattern which is quite rough and sketchy.
Ailsa's works are also a bit childish - very common for "mid-century".Young audience will find them very engaging.





Liam Cobb, is another artist who might be the one who continue "mid-century" style with his architectural bits. This London based illustrator is experimenting with buildings and landscapes, creating beautiful, utopian images.
His architecture theme relates to the "Googie style" from 1950-s. Future houses, space, hybrids - resuming topic in art. Cobb uses simple line drawings (these are riso) to make interesting buildings which look like from future. He also use just 2-3 colours, so it makes his works to look even more common with "mid-century". Anyway, for me Liam looks like a true artist from the after war period who wants to encourage people with the bright future of cosy houses, development and progress of agricultural sphere, calmness and time to relax somewhere in the mountains.
Colour palette is very unbothered, objects are eye-catching, so it makes you stare at the details.

Chester Holme - artist famous for his series of illustrations "It's time to rethink the toilet" where he wanted people to think about the waste they produce. Interesting...
Anyway, his pictures are very aesthetic, they includes soft colours and nice objects. For example, on this picture he shows a man picking up harvest from the "toilet" tree. At some point this picture is abusive/inappropriate, but on the other - it's full of movement and life. Pastel colours on the picture give the feeling of early autumn and time for all fruits and veg ready to be gathered. Holme's style is also connected with "mid-century" style: thick/thin lines, no outlines on some objects(but lines inside the objects for texture/pattern), children's book style and usage of limited colour palette.


So the thing is that past is always somewhere in present, artist inspire and create similar works all the time, even when they don't realise that.