Life as tenant farmers in Kasungu, northern Malawi, can be a struggle for families trapped in poverty, who feel forced to rely on their children’s help, impacting schooling. Here: A tobacco field at a farm in Kasungu region, Malawi. Tobacco is the country’s most important export crop, with tobacco leaf from Malawi filling cigarettes found all over the world. Here: Tiyamike Phiri hopes to become a nurse because she wants to travel the country and help others. (Photo by David Levene/The Guardian)

French artist Gilbert Legrand’s new series takes everyday objects like corkscrews, tape measures, and more and turns them into hilariously cute characters that almost make you forget their original purpose. Skillfully using each object’s natural shape, he crafts a character full of whimsy and personality. Each is painted to detail, with even the tiniest of characters bearing an expression which leaves no doubt as to their feelings about the situation. It truly takes a talented hand and imagination to turn paint brushes and zippers into humorous characters with surprisingly huge personalities.

I was born in Calella (Barcelona) in 1956, and nowadays I live in Vilassar de Mar (Barcelona). Since I was a child I have been fascinated by painting and I think I'm a self-taught painter because, despite I was taught drawing at Primary School, I have acquired my knowledge thanks to my environment. Painting is my own way to express myself. I can shape my inward in the canvas with the essential help of the palette knife and the colours. As a nature’s lover and great observant, my environment has always been my source of inspiration. At present I devote myself exclusively to painting, my true passion, and that is why I feel extremely fortunate.

Lovely is the correct work to describe this beautiful paintings series by David Renshaw from “Ted n’ Doris – A Northern Romance”. “Deep down I always knew what I wanted to do for a living and in my school years I remember my father teaching me some basic elements of drawing and I dreamed of one day becoming an artist. Being only really interested in art I left school and studied Graphic Design, after which I started work at a local art gallery as a picture framer. I continued to paint alongside my job, mainly developing techniques and ideas and in 2005 decided it was time to follow my dreams and dedicate myself to painting full time. I always try to make my work feel atmospheric, and I like to pay particular attention to sky and cloud formations as I consider this element of my work to be extremely important to the mood of the finished painting, whether it be a dramatic sunset or a misty moonlit night.”

“The Southern Tamandua, Collared Anteater or Lesser Anteater (Tamandua tetradactyla) is a species of anteater from South America. It is a solitary animal, found in many habitats from mature to highly disturbed secondary forests and arid savannas. It feeds on ants, termites and bees. It has very strong foreclaws that can be used to break insect nests or to defend itself”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A three-month-old baby Southern Tamandua “Konbu” lies on its mother Tae's back at Sunshine International Aquarium on July 7, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. Baby Southern Tamandua feels safe and comfortable holding onto something and normally stays on the mother's back until around 3 months old. (Photo by Junko Kimura/Getty Images)

Combine harvesters work on a wheat field of the Solgonskoye farming company near the village of Talniki, southwest from Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, August 27, 2015. Russia, one of the world's top wheat exporters, will harvest its third-largest grain crop in post-Soviet history this year, leading Russian consultancy SovEcon said on August 27 after upgrading its forecast. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. The Chernobyl disaster is the worst nuclear power plant accident in history in terms of cost and resulting deaths, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event (the maximum classification) on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011). Photo: Graffiti of a crying baby on a wall, Chernobyl Power Plant, Chernobyl, Ukraine. (Photo by Hans Neleman/Getty Images)