Oil Painting

June 3, 2026

Surreal “Melting” Flower Paintings Explore Symbolic Themes of Femininity and Mortality

Suspended somewhere between bloom and decay, the paintings of Niki Zarrabi unfold like living organisms in transformation. Flesh dissolves into petals. Flowers melt into skin. Rich jewel tones pulse against shadowed backgrounds, creating dreamlike compositions that feel at once microscopic and cosmic. Across her work, beauty is never static. Instead, it exists in a continual state of becoming, fragile, regenerative, and haunted by impermanence.

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May 4, 2026

Self-Taught Painter Translates Personal Emotions Into Vibrant Oil Paintings [Interview]

Self-taught painter Tom D. Smith creates expressive oil paintings that translate emotion into color, movement, and form. As a result, his compositions emphasize energy and sensation, and they feel both immediate and reflective of shared human experience. Beginning with an internal concept or feeling, Smith develops his paintings through a process of visualization and refinement.

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February 25, 2026

Adorable Paintings of Pets With Naughty Habits and Wholesome Hobbies

Artist Alison Friend shows how contagious happiness can be through her quirky oil paintings. Love Bite, a recent portrait from her growing portfolio of extraordinary work, offers her signature style of anthropomorphizing an adorable animal with a unique twist. As she tells My Modern Met, “I paint funny contemporary portraits of animals with modern relatable vices, like snacks, booze, and cigarettes.

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November 17, 2025

Surreal Oil Paintings of Stoic People Enveloped in Nature Reveal Their Lively Inner Emotions

Blending surreal elements with detailed realism, Lara Hochreiter’s oil portraits explore our intrinsic connection to the natural world. Each colorful painting is like a portal into the subject’s inner world, revealing lived experiences through nature-infused symbolism. Hochreiter explains, “I create from the space where vulnerability and resilience coexist.” In two separate works, Hochreiter paints her subjects holding oversized hearts with plantlife growing from their fleshy surfaces.

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My Modern Met

Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanity—from the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening.