Favorite artists - contribute!

[Sassafras]

This may, or may not, surprise many of you, but I feel a very strong affinity for medieval religious art. I have stood for hours drinking in this piece, The Annunciation Triptych, Altarpiece, ca. 1425 by Robert Campin, is in the Cloisters ... a jewel of a museum made up of 12c-15c architecture, set in Fort Tyron Park in NYC.

The Unicorn tapestries are also part of the permanent collection.




I suspect that the painting appears stilted to a lot of people but somehow I find the faith and devotion shines through and I find the figures very pleasing. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do it justice at all. The colours are so rich and the detail is extraordinary.

[Jnyusa]

Sass, I LOVE this triptych, though I've only seen it in art books, never in person.

I especially like the middle panel. There's something so luxurious about the folds of the fabric worn by Mary and the Angel.

Jn

[Mrs. Frodo Baggins]

I like art for both the story and the actual image, but I think the story is more important to me. That is why Dali speaks to me while Pollock doesn't. At least there is something in Dali's paintings that have a form (no matter how strange that form may be), but Pollock's paintings are just brushstrokes and masses of color. I can't understand what he is trying to tell me besides it is fun to paint.

OK, here is the full painting that Di had in her avatar. I think it is beautiful and romantic. It is by Pierre-Auguste Cot:



Di has been a wealth of art to me because she also had an intriguing quote in her sig by another artist. I looked him up and found out I already knew his paintings. I espcially love this set. It tells a VERY definite story; the story of one of my favorite myths. These are by Sir Edward Burne-Jones:









As for naked women in art, I don't think it is always meant to be detrimental. The woman's body is a beautiful work of art itself and a lot of fun to draw. I would much rather draw a naked or semi-naked woman than a naked or semi-naked man because the woman is funner to draw. I also happen to be a woman and am not trying to objectify them at all. I suppose maybe all art can be seen as objectification. After all isn't the landscape or the eagle just as objectfied when they are studied and painted? I don't see it this way though. I see an artist wanting to capture the beauty of creation on canvas (as much and as well as s/he can).

~Mrs. Baggins

(TH, Sid is fine with me. One can't get a much shorter name than that! )

[Rodia]

PYGMALION!!!! I adore that story...and those paintings. Have an rp character based loosely on the idea...ahem. There is nothing at all detrimental in them, I agree...I mean just look at how he worships her in the last one! He himself is so 'handsome' as to look almost like a girl, but he is just amazed at how wonderful a woman can be.

Sass, you should come to Warsaw. Our National Museum has tons of medieval altars on permanent display...and though they may not be that famous, they're a wonder to look at. I love the gild.

My personal favourite religious piece is this one:

I was thrilled to see it live in London. I think what I like most about it is that Mary and Jesus are far away from all the extasies of saints and sponsors, away from the crowd and form. Out in the meadow, not even fluffy bunnies and butterflies surround them. The child is really human, the mother's faith is based not on a cathedral around them, but the love she has for her son, the blue of the sky, and the many yellows of the dry meadow. It's not a pretty landscape, but it's home.

[Primula Baggins]

And . . . not to be irreverent, but I have certainly felt as Mary obviously does when the baby finally fell asleep!

[Rodia]

Did anyone hear that 'I hear ya!' from the skies?

[Athrabeth]

Did anyone hear that 'I hear ya!' from the skies?

I hope it didn't wake the baby.

[Athrabeth]

Here's a work of another Canadian artist that I really like: Ted Harrison, who said, "I paint from my mind, not from reality. It’s a world of happiness and joy that transcends the normal world. The dream world is best."

[Jnyusa]

Looks like a lot of Japanese influence there, Ath!

Jn

[vison]

Here's a work of another Canadian artist that I really like: Ted Harrison, who said, "I paint from my mind, not from reality. It’s a world of happiness and joy that transcends the normal world. The dream world is best."

Oh, I love Ted Harrison. Is he still alive? I know he moved to Victoria some years ago. Saw him interviewed a long time ago, what a nice man. English.

The Group of Seven. There was an exhibit of G7 works in Vancouver about.....10? years ago? Wonderful, wonderful. Iconic images.

I am going to learn to post pictures, and try a G7 or two.

A wonderful article in this morning's Sun. A group of American artists have made sketches of the "missing women" in the Picton case. The sketches show the women smiling and pretty, to replace in our minds the horrid mug shots that most of them were shown in. What a lovely thing to do.

[anthriel]

Is visual art 'about' pleasing colors and shapes, or it about something else? What is it that gets you, personally, excited about a work of art?

To me, its about both. A painting doesn't work for me if it not well-crafted in terms of the artist's use of space and color and light. But equally, a painting doesn't work for me unless it says something to me, unless is about something. Like this one:

Ooooo! I like that, VMan.

I have always liked folk art type paintings.. for some reason the very fact that they are not trying to make everything visually perfect, like a photograph would be, is a draw. It encourages my eye to travel around the piece, and stop and ponder what the separate elements meant to the artist.

This is a great thread, btw.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Thank you, Anthy, you show impeccilbe taste, as always.

I couldn't tell you quite what that painting says to me, but it definitely does say something.

[anthriel]

It's like a kitty's dream, or something, Or maybe nightmare. All those fishies all over the darned place... and he's probably not allowed to touch a single one of them.



I love the expression on his face...

[Jnyusa]

That's what I thought, too, Anthy! It's a painting of kitty thoughts.

Jn

[Voronwë the Faithful]

"Calla Lillies on Pink," by Georgia O'Keefe (I think)

[vison]

Hmmm......Georgia O'Keefe, eh?

Well, you know what they say, don't you?

Aside from that artist, who seemed to paint them a lot, I don't like either Calla Lilies or Canna Lilies.

A fault in me, sans doubt.

I do like Tiger Lilies, though. Outside. Where they belong.

I am going to work on this business of posting pictures. I confess it has me puzzled.

[vison]

Well, I did it. But I see I made it way too big, and I guess I'm going to have to fix that. It may take me awhile!

This is an "iconic" Canadian image, although it was Tom Thomson who first exhibited such a picture, inspiring Fred Varley (who painted this one) and the others in The Group of Seven.

I love this picture an awful lot. It is "Georgian Bay" by Fred Varley.

[Sassafras]

I rather like that painting, vison ... it has a sort of Van Gogh feeling to it with the broad brushstrokes and the colours.

I quite like O'Keefe as well but I'm afraid the folk-art cat painting Anthy posted does next to nothing for me.

I'm such a conservative in the arts ... I like best the music of Bach and Mozart and representational art from the 15th-19th centuries.

Hans Holbien the younger:

Sir Thomas More. This painting is in the Frick museum in NYC. I've seen it many times. For some reason I am so drawn to his face ... this photo doesn't do it justice.




Queen Christina of Denmark. I would love to see this in the flesh, so to speak. I think this painting is extraordinary. The way he painted her gown, I can almost feel the softness of the fur trimming and the exquisite hands holding the gloves ....

[truehobbit]

I'm such a conservative in the arts ... I like best the music of Bach and Mozart and representational art from the 15th-19th centuries.

Same here! But I can't help feeling that the reason they've remained so famous for so long is because they are the best!
At church today there was a poster showing just the hands of God and Adam from Michelangelo's Creation in the Sistine Chapel. Normally, you see that image so often everywhere that it just makes you groan to see it, but today it caught my eye and I thought it's just perfect and genius, no matter how much it gets used and quoted and whatever.


I love Holbein, too! And portrait art in general, really. I never used to be interested in it, until a friend who loves it talked so enthusiastically about it that the next time I was in London I went to the National Portrait Gallery for the first time. I stayed the whole afternoon and went again the next day - I was just swept off my feet with much of the stuff there!

I like the Canadian painting, particularly the way the light of the setting sun is reflected from the clouds and hits the waves, the coast and the tree! It's just a few seemingly crude brush-strokes, but the way the light in the clouds seems to shine and change is so realistic and alive, and I love that!

[vison]

Here is a Maud Lewis picture.