Art

[Sean Regan]

On a similar forum on a music board the subject of art came up. Favourite paintings.

It's a difficult choice, there's so many styles and genres, so I'll share some of mine. I'd be interested in yours.

My favourite artist is John Singer Sargent. He was very talented.


I've had this as the background screen of whatever computer I've been using, for decades.
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. It took him weeks to paint it as he'd rather play badminton, than get on with it when he went to the house. So only spent a few minutes painting in the evenings when the "light was right."

I admire him as an artist as he could paint in different styles.

Most famous as a portrait painter of the "upper classes." Huge numbers of these works.

An example.
Beatrice Townsend at the age of twelve in 1882. The daughter of a New York lawyer and politician friend. I think he captured her vibrancy, It's sad to think that she died of peritonitis, two years after this was painted.

A mixed blessing as a permanent reminder of a loved child.




But he could also paint land and seascapes.

The Oyster Gatherers



Another favourite is Norman Rockwell, the illustrator, who painted the cover for the Saturday Evening Post, week in week out for decades.
Click to expand...
I discovered him when I was at grammar school. The school bought the Saturday Evening Post and put it in the library each week, (I also looked at the adverts for American cars). I had to buy it myself each week once I left school.

"Every picture told a story."

 

[DirtMechanic]

We have framed replicas of all kinds in the house. Becky studied for a BofFA and managed a Magna Cum Laude so I only grunt at the pics. I enjoyed paintings at musee d'orsay and the Louvre. She framed a bunch of that stuff too. Nothing like the real thing though. Mona is such a tiny girl, you would have to see her to believe it.

 

[LouisFerdinand]

Diego Velazquez was a Spanish painter. He was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain. Philip IV reigned from 1621 until 1640.
Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/785667097480545150/

Prince Balthasar Charles (Carlos) as a Hunter

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/174796029262483236/

 

[LouisFerdinand]

Prince Charles is The Prince of Wales. He paints.

 

[Giri]

Sitting on a cafe terrace overlooking the plaza yesterday, I was re-reading the slim volume which changed my life.
Haven´t looked at it for years but it slips in the pocket nicely, and I like something to read with my morning coffee and brandy.
The careful observer would have noticed that from time to time my shoulders heaved with suppressed mirth.

The book is a series of lectures given in 1859 by John Ruskin, whose views on art, and his astute grasp of political history, make him in my view an unparalleled commentator on the subject.
It is entitled The Two Paths.

When, in pointing out to his art-loving audience of the Great and Good that Art has always served the Church and the Political Establishment, he asks whether they are therefore ¨assembled to any good purpose,¨ I nearly spilled my coffee.
He taught me that in making the object of my architectural work in metal with a view to having it look ¨as if it has always been there¨ I was functioning as a decorative artist, in his view the highest form of art, I began to take it (and possibly myself) much more seriously.
So did my clients ...

He also taught me that if you have to sign your work to make it valuable, you are not working in the world of art, but the property market.
My work WAS my signature, but few understood that.

Since moving to Spain I have bought one Gauguin (signed! for 12€ in the local market) because I like the colours, and a painting by the student who helps me with my Spanish irregular verbs. She is also going to do a landscape of my house nestling in the rio Lanjaron canyon, and has presented me with a cartoon of me on my motorcycle -- all in her own clearly emerging style.

I prefer her work to that of a Royal Academician for whom I once worked. He had two of his paintings leaning against the cellar wall, each sporting a four figure price tag. It occurred to me that if he really thought they were worth anything he would have put a dust sheet over them.