Looking for an original painting or drawing of male figure to buy online might seem easy. When you get billions of search results for "male figure", "gay men art" or "men body" and you will be overwhelmed with the diversity of styles and colors. However, when you dig deeper, not everything you see is real art.
I am not going to get myself into discussing right now what real art is, but in this particular case by "real" I mean real paintings and drawings.
Most of what is sold is either art prints or digital works, or (miriads of!) AI generated imagery. Which is not bad. It's just not handmade. I hope you know what I mean.
Real paintings (oils, acrylics, tempera, ink) and drawings (charcoal, graphite, pastel) have a totally different feel. And if you are looking for that feeling of real artwork that would become a very unique decoration for your home then I might have some suggestion where to look for it.
Since I have a little art shop on Etsy, an online platform for selling and buying handmade items, I do a regular check-ups of what is offered there. Unfortunatelly, yes, a lot of digital stuff and AI, but there are some hidden gems amidst all this fuss of pseudo-artistic creativity. Pardon my French.
So, If you are a lover of male body, an art collector or if you are looking for an original figurative oil painting or a drawing – here are my TOP-7* Etsy shops with real paintings and drawings of male figure and gay themed original art.
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* I was going for TO-10, but after studying my favorite Etsy shops a bit longer I have realized that where I thought it's original paintings and drawings they turned out to be art prints. So, that's why TOP-7.
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Ian Morris Art
Ian Morris is a visual artist from Manchestr, UK. He has very expressive male and female nude figure drawings in pastel and charcoal.
In his own words:
I'm an artist and architect living in Manchester, UK. I love drawing in all its forms, particularly loose, expressive works in charcoal.
Ian Morris' Etsy Shop
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Kenny Mencher
Kenny Mencher is an artist from Palo Alto, California (USA). In his Etsy shop you can find beautifully and professionally done oil paintings of male body. In his words:
For 17 years I was a full-time professor art and art history at Ohlone college in Fremont California but I have retired at the age of 51 to pursue a career as a full-time artist... Oil painter of the homoerotic subjects, geekery, cute animals and other esoteric subject matter such as science fiction and pinups.
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Ross Art Firenze
An Etsy art shop of Dimitri Ross, a visual artist from Florence, Italy – Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Of course, my shop is one of the few where you can buy real paintings and drawings. Male figurative art in oil, charcoal and pastel.
As a visual artist, I create original figurative artworks, paintings and drawings. Mostly it's about the beauty of the male figure. I work with oil colors, charcoal and pastel.
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Eleanor Adair Art
Visual artist from Edinburgh, UK. There are mostly female nudes (very beautiful, original, mysterious) but if you look closely you will see male figures, too. In her own words:
I'm an artist having fun exploring life in my head. I'm intrigued by the scope of who we are as humans, our capacity for thought, language and humanity next to our potential for brutality, and I'd say it's this fascination which pushes me to paint.
I think a lot about how self-consciousness shapes our identity and how art is a way of exploring the ways we construct and define ourselves through others. I'm heavily drawn towards figurative art and when I'm painting, my brush loves to find alternative routes and explore the extremities that make the body talk.
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FNCKConsistency
An Etsy art shop of Guillaume Deschamps, a visual artist from Lion, France.
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The Art Of Felix Deon
An Etsy art shop of Félix d'Eon, a visual artist based in Mexico City, Mexico. – Bright and brave male figurative art in academic style with elements of Art Nouvaeu. In his own words:
I am a gay Mexican artist dedicated to the art of queer love and romance. I strive in my work to be inclusive of the whole of the queer community.
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Patricia Trindade
An Etsy art shop of Patricia Trindade, a visual artist from Porto, Portugal. A very interesting female artistic perspective on male sexuality.
