The Arts & Culture Journal

Devin McGrath is a New York-based illustrator originally heralding from Melbourne, Australia. Fallyrag is delighted to be showcasing a collection of his latest pieces that capture not only a surreal, imaginative artist at work, but one that also shows superb technical ability.

Devin's illustrations are awash with a bright colour palette that conflicts with the realism of his line. Perfectly drawn figures and animals are bought to life with high contrasting foreground features against a minimal background. Such composition throws the viewer immediately into the action - they are both lively and unsettlingly peaceful.

For although the colours enliven his work and grab your initial attention, closer inspection reveals a far more sinister side: 'I like to try and disguise something a little more sinister within a candy coloured fantastical realm that makes people do a sort of double take.'

A small budgie recoils from an in-flight collision with a light bulb; two innocent looking children hold a balloon whilst studying the massacre of rabbits, which bloodied hands reveal was their doing. Devin is a master of presenting the ugly with beauty.

Yet how does an artist reach these complex visual feasts? Contemporary illustrators would be interested in just how these works are created. Devin kindly shares a little of his wisdom with us: 'My inspiration tends to come from a phrase or a word stuck in my head and I obsess over it and it just begins to visually manifest itself.'

‘Where these words/phrases come from always varies; usually a song, a film, or just things I over hear or read. I find I'm at my most creative when I’m too hungover to move, and forced to spend more time inside my head.'