Californian artist Greg “Craola” Simkins is a pop surrealism painter with a wild imagination. Simkins combines animals from different habitats to create scenes in which killer whales swim alongside birds or sea monsters lurk beneath an iceberg that offers sanctuary to a rhinoceros. Greg Simkins says that this fascination with combining creatures from different worlds began when he was a child. During a family trip to Hawaii, the young Simkins was stunned by the sea life he discovered there. A short time later he watched a nature documentary on the Yellowstone National Park and was inspired by the vast difference between these two environments. Somewhere in his vivid imagination, the idea was born to combine both worlds through the medium of art.<\/p>\n
Simkin’s pop surrealism paintings use a 3D cartoon style that gives his animal characters a humorous appeal. He also personifies his animal subjects by giving them human facial expressions which elicit an empathetic response in the viewer. Greg Simkin’s style works for a wide variety of projects and he’s been involved in creating street murals, clothing designs and video game graphics.<\/p>\n