Humans with animal heads in surreal paintings by Matthew Grabelsky

Humans with animal heads in surreal paintings by Matthew Grabelsky

Imagine walking onto the subway one day and seeing everyone else with animal heads instead of normal faces. That is the world in which Matthew Grabelsky’s paintings take place, a world inspired by his many mundane trips on the subway and his fascination with Greek mythology. Often in Greek mythology, you will hear of creatures part animal part human, and within Grabelsky’s world, you see these human-animal hybrids (is that offensive to call them hybrids?) casually taking a trip downtown while reading a magazine or newspaper just like you would.

Not only do these works shock you with its surreal characters but it amazes you with how real these works appear. Often having our followers fight over if it’s an actual painting or digital art in the comment section of our post, and yes it is in fact a painting and not a digital creation. If you would like to see these works for yourself in person Matthew’s works will be on display at Thinkspace starting November 14th – December 5th, 2020.

“I fell in love with realistic oil paintings when I was in college. I saw these incredible pieces in museums and I had a powerful urge to learn how to paint like that. I started off by buying some oil paints and brushes and tried to make something like what I had been admiring but I wasn’t able to even come close. Now after years of study and practice, I have gotten to the point where I am able to make oil paint match the images I see in my head and that is immensely satisfying and a great sense of accomplishment. While I’m sure I will spend the rest of my life trying to refine my technique I have finally gotten to a point where I can express myself through oil.” – Matthew Grabelsky (Quote via an interview at sourharvest.com/ )

Source: Grabelsky website. | sourharvest.com/

View the artist’s Instagram here.

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