Montana Forbes – a celebration of the female form

‘Untitled’
Montana Forbes
home page,
www.montanaforbes.com


According to an entry in ‘The Fashion Spot’ (July 2005), Montana Forbes acknowledges:

“My work is heavily influenced by a number of things like Fine & Pop Art. I draw a lot from music, photographs, magazines and Japanese animation and set out to capture a certain mood or presence that I get from these mediums.

My background in fine art and graphic design certainly contributes to being aware and sensitive of various mediums and approaches to projects and to comfortably use vivid colours and fluid lines whilst still maintaining a sense of simplicity to my work.

Currently I’m experimenting with infusing real life elements to add depth and peculiarity.”

Eyestorm.com, a famous British online publisher and distributor of contemporary art, concurs. In a recent feature on Montana Forbes, Eyestorm states:

“Montana Forbes’ striking illustrations are a celebration of the female form. With simple lines and flat blocks of colour or monochrome tones, this body of work documents the perception of today’s women in western society.

Hugely influenced by images of popular culture and all things vintage, whether fashion shoots from the seventies, or the innovative record covers from the 1980’s, Forbes draws the women in poses similar to those taken by models in a magazine.

The artist’s objective is simplicity with attention to line and form, and her distinctive use of bright colours comes from travelling a lot between the USA, Southern Africa and the UK whilst growing up.

Forbes has been a resident illustrator for The Sunday Times’ weekly ‘Style’ Magazine for the past two years, and subsequently some of these pieces stemmed from commissions. These works are more than just a drawing to illustrate a newspaper article however – they are powerful and dominant artworks; perhaps suggesting Forbes’ own perception of ‘the fairer sex’.”

Without much ado, go directly to Eyestorm’s Montana Forbes’ exhibition here.

See lot’s more of Montana Forbes’ work here and here.

[Citation: The Fashion Spot, July 2005; Eyestorm’s Montana Forbes’ page; Illustration Ltd’s Montana Forbes’ page; SAA Illustration Hub’s Montana Forbes’ page. ‘Untitled’ image reproduced from Montana Forbes’ website (website not ready yet).]