Pixel Pointillista

There is an art gallery on Bulevardi that I walk past fairly often which usually has some really funky looking art in it but for the last few weeks I've noticed some art that I like. The artists name is Sami Lukkarinen and he apparently uses photoshop to pixelate photographs which he then uses as a guide to paint. The high-brow artsy description of his work doesn't mention what I find interesting about his pieces which is that he has taken a very old technique and somehow made it different with the use of photoshop and the colours he chooses.

The artist has one painting that is obviously derived from a picture of the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Somehow, even without the details, it is familiar and known. The square pixels also lend a certain feeling of order which is strangely comforting. I may have to select a picture of HB and try painting a portrait of him using this technique since an art teacher of mine in gradeschool had us do a painting using the technique but this was long before photoshop came along.

n.b. Well, the alleged Eiffel picture is actually a Finnish church. I suppose that should have been obvious had I realised that the entire exhibit was of churches. I have an aversion to churches so I think I like the Eiffel idea better. :) Still, there is something familiar about them even when you think it's something completely different than what it really is.