Alyssa Monks
Some amazing large scale hydrological paintings from Brooklyn based Artist Alyssa Monks. Alyssa Monks works in the field of photorealism, yet revealed in the detail of her paintings is a playful abstraction created with thick strokes of paint within a restricted pallet. The result being beautifully intimate depictions of human flesh in contact with water, steam and glass.
“When I began painting the human body, I was obsessed with it and needed to create as much realism as possible. I chased realism until it began to unravel and deconstruct itself. Realism and Abstraction are in a symbiotic relationship they need each other to exist and eventually become the same.”
Alyssa Monks is currently represented by David Klein Gallery in Birmingham, Michigan and is currently exhibiting her work at Art Miama, Florida untill December 4th 2011.
surface & surface 
Wow…difficult to believe they’re not photographs. You should have a look at Royal college of Art graduate Sarah Harvey…similar work but with a little more distortion and abstraction…:)
Thanks for the comment, had a look at her work there and it’s amazing. She’s very prolific. Really like how she divides some of her paintings into separate panels.
http://www.sarahharvey.co.uk/index.asp
Didn’t you do a post on her before? It might have been someone else :> Still, I can never get over how incredible these are. Also, an interesting quotation; it’s true enough.