Artist Uses Paint Chips as the Backdrops of His Paintings

At first glance, it looks like artist Shawn Huckins painted hyper-realistic scenes onto paint chips from the hardware store. These swatches are actually large paintings that Huckins expertly recreated with oil paint. He uses the blown-up replicas as a setting and inserts everyday imagery that mingles with the cards. The subjects will even occasionally interact with the paint chips and use the white lines as a table or counter. Impressively, each scene matches the colors of the swatch perfectly. My favorite incorporates David Hockney's famous A Bigger Splash. 

The focus of the project is finding the beauty and meaning in the mundane. Huckins explains on his website: 

In today’s abundant American culture, any material thing we could possibly ever want or need is at our fingertips. Fast food chains, convenience stores, super markets, gas stations, and department stores are ubiquitous. While the products and services we use, the clothes we wear, and the food we consume may be uniform and standardized, I find pure, simplistic beauty and exceptional intimacy in the common object and our everyday environment.

Images courtesy of Shawn Huckins, used with permission