Pusuits by Joe Park. Click for full image.

Joe Park (1964) is a Canadian-born painter who now lives in Seattle and Washington, USA. Sheila Farr, art critic at the Seattle Times wrote about him:

“Joseph Park’s imagery has a quaint, paint-by-number simplicity that at one time would have seemed odd for a guy who can handle paint like a master. Park doesn’t blend color on his canvases, trying for a semblance of realism, but instead fills in areas with single tones, sometimes overlaid with shafts of light and shadow, so that his pictures look like animation stills. With references to famous pictures and Japanese movies, Park makes animals play human roles in images that are slick, unsettling and mildly ironic in their post-modern sensibility.”

Shown above is a detail of Park’s 2001 work Pursuits. It is painted in oil on linen, and measures 52in x 43in (132x109cm). The work is a remastered version of William Bouguereau’s famous 1873 painting Nymphes et Satyre (Nymphs and Satyr). Below you can compare the two versions. Click the first to visit the gallery where you will find dozens of contemporary versions of the same painting. Click the second to view Joe Park’s Pursuits in his online catalog.