Carl Cashman is a contemporary artist based in Devon, who creates stunning, vibrant geometric-based optical art. Some of Carl’s work is painted using UV reactive paint, which adds a further visual element to the pieces when seen in the right environment.

Carl originally studied art at Dartington College of Arts and graduated from there in 2008.  He cites Bridget Riley, M C Escher and the Beautiful Losers as major artistic influences.

Where do you get the ideas for your pieces?

My ideas tend to just come from a doodle. Everything of mine is hand drawn. I think draughtsmanship is a skill on its own to be appreciated and I think computers have taken a lot of the effort away from creating works of art… although they do obviously have their place, and as my work develops I may feel the need to use one. I tend to paint most of my ideas as I sometimes find it hard to picture how the tones on a piece such as the Ribbons will turn out.

What do you use to create your work?

My kit includes: a ruler, pencil, art tape (for more intricate works), a compass and a protractor.

Most of my works are painted with acrylics on ply, although recently I’ve started using watercolour paper and canvases and have also painted directly onto old Record sleeves.

What artists do you currently like?

I enjoy collecting artwork myself – usually people I find inspirational.  I have pieces by: Banksy, Kaws, Todd James and Espo. Amongst others I am currently really enjoying Eric Shaw, Ben Rawson, Matthew Palladino and LX One.

Why Op Art?

When I first left Dartington, I was going through a stencil phase, but one piece was reported locally as a Banksy so I realised that if I ever wanted to be respected for what I do… stencils were not the answer. I’ve been making Op Art based work for around the last 18 months.  I’ve enjoyed it since school days when we did lots of projects based on M C Escher… I find the process of creating them hypnotic.

What else do you do outside of your art?

When I’m not living like a hermit spending all my time painting I love going to festivals. Music is one of my inspirations and I’m mainly to be found in the dance tents. I don’t really get to see as much other art as I would like, but I help out at shows like Moner if I can.  I find the experience of seeing artists like Steve Powers, Herakut and Peeta at work an honor.

Below you can see some of the preparatory work that goes into creating one of Carl’s peices together with a finished piece.

Carl sells his work via his Carl Cashman website.  I would highly recommend that you take a look at this as the work is extremely reasonably priced and highly original.

You can also see more of Carl’s work and his other photos on his flickr stream.

Robin Hunnam creates both digital and photographic Op Art.  He studied graphic design at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, went on to work as an art director in a London Advertising Agency and now works a designer and illustrator.

“The two most important lessons that I learnt during the course were that at its heart, design is really only concerned with problem solving and that a great idea is always better than a great technique.  This realisation was never more important than during my career as an art director in London advertising agencies – places where ideas are the most valuable currency.“

“Great ideas are about simplicity and about stripping away the unnecessary or the merely decorative. Op Art is a dramatic example of the visual power of simplicity. Some of the most memorable artworks from the movement are even devoid of colour, tone and variety of line and shape.”

Robin cites Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely as major influences; it was M. C. Escher however who was the most influential on the development of Robin’s art and design work.

“His work has an elegance of idea and execution. When I look through his body of work I see behind it the countless initial ideas, the failures and dead-ends that came before the final piece. By the time that the viewer first sees the completed work, there is a sense that it has always existed. His ability to create a visual magic that is greater than the sum of the visual parts will never fail to inspire me.“

“I strive to make my work look effortless and even obvious – trying to keep it a secret that it took many initial pencil sketches before it even began to take shape on the computer. I work on an Apple iMac and use Adobe CS4 – primarily the Illustrator program. I am most at ease with Illustrator simply because it thinks like I do and it looks kindly on people who can really draw in the old-fashioned way.”

“I believe it is important to look beyond the narrow confines of western art and design for inspiration in one’s own work and I spend time researching arts and crafts from other times and other cultures including Japan, Polynesia, first nation America, and Africa. It is humbling to realise that artists and craftsmen for millennia have wrestled with and resolved the same visual problems that I try to today.”

You can see more of Robin’s Op Art work on his website, Grasshoppermind.

The person behind “I am, we are” – the latest artist to feature in the Op Art Gallery – is a 27 year old self-taught art director from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

How do you create your work?

My process is purely based on a concept idea, experimentation and evolution.  A rough draft may end up as a completely different thing.  I only use Adobe Illustrator to develop my design pieces since it gives me the freedom to print my designs in a vast array of formats and sizes, while still retaining line fidelity.  I am self taught, and extremely critical about my process.  I constantly find myself looking for new ways to evolve my technique.  The infinite limitations of geometry…

Where do you get your inspiration from?

My main source of inspiration, and motivation would be the unknown.  My inner eye develops with time, experience, and most of all effort.  I am driven by the evolution of my work, and that of the collective’s.  This in turn motivates me to spend countless hours behind the screen.  Nature will always push my imagination, making the finite infinite.

Why Op Art?

I love op art and kinetic art because it engages the viewer not only visually, but spiritually as well.  It has no flag, no religion and it chooses no side – much like nature.  Depending on the individual, each piece acquires its own meaning.

Any other art that you particularly like?

Basically many variations of geometric art: classical structures, knots, fractals, Kinetic art, Bauhaus, tessellations, patterns and surfaces…

Outside of creating your art..?

If I am not working on a new design, I create murals with the help of my girlfriend; I am also making a huge collection of wall poster prints to paste around the city I live in. Also I am an information freak, I will eat up any documentary or pdf book I can find.

You can see more of I am, we are and keep up to date on his new pieces on his flickr stream.  If you’re wondering where inspiration for the titles to the pieces came from, my guess would be here.

Chris Long first developed an interest in and started creating Op Art when he studied for a B.A. in Art at Solihull College in the West Midlands (UK).  That was 7 years ago.  Since then he has completed an M.A. in Fine Art at Birmingham City University and has started his own business selling his designs in various formats and mediums.  Although in its first year, the business has been growing “slowly but steadily”.

“I am fascinated by op art because of the illusions the pieces create.  I particularly like images that give the appearance of being 3D despite being painted on a flat surface and images that appear to move when they are clearly not moving at all.  I have been very much inspired by the work of Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley; I also like the work of M.C Escher – particularly his ‘impossible’ illustrated works.”

Chris works mainly painting by hand on canvas or hard board, but has recently started creating pieces with a computer using nothing other than Microsoft Paint.  These pieces “involve creating a complex grid system – something that can be quite time consuming depending on the size and the complexity of the design – but once done, allows me to reuse this grid structure to create multiple designs.  Once I have completed a design, I change the colour of the grid lines – sometimes creating the impression that the lines are bending even though they are perfectly straight”

Chris was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome soon after starting University and has found that his artwork has been a great way of helping him “deal with the many things in life that cause him stress and anxiety.”

Outside of his art, Chris is a cricket fanatic and is also a big online gamer.  “In particular, the online gaming has been a great way of making friends as I have previously found social contact quite difficult.  As part of the gaming, a friend and I make videos of the gameplay which we commentate over.  This has been a great confidence building exercise for me which I’ve found I can use in other aspects of my life”.

If you’d like to buy any of Chris’s designs, you can do so as laptop covers on Lapjacks, or as posters, keyrings and postcards at his zazzle store.  If you want to watch Chris’s gaming videos you can do so at his YouTube Channel.

Born in Venezuela and raised in Miami, 36 year old Arnold Steiner has been involved in Fine Art and Design for most of his life. As a child he was given a box of Crayolas; a defining moment that first sparked his passion for art.

After graduating from High School, Arnold studied for 3 years at the School of Visual Arts in New York. For the next 10 years, Arnold worked in New York as a freelance Graphic designer and continues to work in this field today. Examples of his work can be found in everything from film posters, album covers, clothing designs to advertisement and packaging design.  Arnold’s work has been featured in several contemporary graphic design books and other publications including Time Out, Trace, Surface, Translucent (Japan), Sampler2, and Repellent.

After 15 years of making his mark in the print digital medium, Arnold took a leap into digital video, collaborating with Phoenix and Brian in creating “Drawdown” in 2004. Arnold is also active in the contemporary ‘Electro’ music scene; in 2005 Arnold started his own record label “Transient Force” and has published over 10 albums in the past 7 years.

While still maintaining his graphic design integrity and music production, Arnold continued pursuing Fine Art. In 2007 he created a 5,000 square foot Multimedia Art exhibition “Submecha” featuring Fine Art, Digital art and Video. In 2008 Arnold was Nominated “Best Local Album Cover Artist” By the “Miami New Times”. In 2010 Arnold was awarded 1st place in the Sci-Fi London film festival poster contest “Life In 2050″. Arnold is a multi talented artist with both visual and musical expression.

About the Artwork

Arnold always had a passion for the basic colours and tones that can be used to generate the entire colour spectrum, but it was the discovery of Mondrian’s work that led him to believe he had found the colour set he would fall in love with; there was something about using these colours (Red, Yellow, Blue, Black and White) that gave him a sense of completion.

Soon after this discovery he began to experiment with different styles such as Suprematism, Comparison Art, Possibility Art, Minimalism and Op Art. It was the discovery of Bridget Riley’s ‘striped’ pieces that was the next defining moment in his artistic career. Arnold started an ongoing study of how these basic colours appear within a different composition of stripes and the effect that the stripes created. Working exclusively with vertical stripes, each painting has a focus on balance no matter what the nature of the composition.

“I chose to name each piece as “Untitled” so the viewer is not distracted by a particular idea. The paining is created more for the viewer to self-reflect on how they feel about it rather than it being a form of self expression.”

Why do you like Op Art?

I like Op art because to me it is the foundation of colour theory and composition. Another reason why I like Op Art is that it leaves the viewer with an emotion without any literal explanation. Op Art lets the viewer decide what it means to them. I like the symbolism that can be found in Op art. What I particularly like about the Op art I’m creating is the choice of colours (Red, Blue, Yellow, Black and White paint ) which are the foundation to the entire colour spectrum.

How do you make your art?

I make my paintings by thinking of different compositions without any pre-sketches or computer. I create the art with the application of Red, Blue, Yellow, Black and white acrylic paint, art tape and a ruler. Each painting needs to have a new variation on how the stripes are placed. This is the process I use to create my paintings.

Any other art you like?

I am inspired by Bridget Riley, Mondrian, Yaacov Agam, Daniel Buren, Günter Fruhtrunk and Omar Rayo.

Website:

www.arnoldsteiner.com

Paintings:

www.arnoldsteiner.bigcartel.com

Contact:

arnold@arnoldsteiner.com