This is Franz Von Stuck’s Sin (1893, Oil on canvas, 35″ x 21″), which may get my vote for having perhaps the most accurate title of an art piece I’ve seen. I like the color choices and palette here that Von Stuck used, or rather a lack thereof. He keeps the colors simple, nearly a duotone. What he does use for color throughout, due to it’s similarity, is a feeling of almost looking at Read more…
Ok, so my “little break” was more like a couple of weeks. Add “extreme coughing from the lungs” to “Post-Las Vegas” and there you go. But I’m back, and this one is an interesting one for me. It’s one of the first art pieces that I really took something from, especially in the extreme emotion. This is Il’ya Repin’s Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581 (1885, oil on canvas, Read more…
If you’re looking for This Week’s Art, I wimped out and decided I had too many things to do this week. I am heading to Las Vegas early in the morning for Photoshop World, which should be quite fun. Wish me luck!
Here’s another of the images that I posted on the Message Board of the Damned so long ago. This is Rene Magritte’s The Lovers (1928, oil, 21″ x 29″, aka Les Amants), a piece which I’ve had ready to post for some time, but decided to hold onto. It’s just such an interesting, disturbing piece (maybe) that I had to finally write about it (well, again). Magritte’s image is probably one of the most Read more…
The fans of Edgar Allan Poe out there should like this one (not that they are probably reading my blog, but it’s worth a try). This is Antoine Wiertz’s The Premature Burial (1854, media/size unknown, aka The Hasty Burial), a piece I first saw many years ago accompanying Poe’s work by the same name (which was painted several years after Poe’s death). Wiertz’s work often treaded on dark, horrific imagery, as a number of Read more…
This is Jean-Léon Gérôme’s The Duel After the Masquerade (1857, Oil, 20″ x 28″), a piece I came across when I was actually looking for another of his works (this one, which may come up again in the future). It struck me as an interesting piece, and a much different palette than many of Gérôme’s other works. The setting is pretty much explained in the title, we are seeing the aftermath of the duel. Read more…
This is Gustave Dore’s Rising of the Bones (aka, Vision of the Valley of the Dry Bones, 1865, engraving), a masterwork by one of the greatest engravers and artists that I’ve yet come across. When I started being an artist, there were certain works and creators that I was really influenced by. Artists like Michael Whelan, and Frank Miller, and maybe none more than Dore. Most of my first works were scratchboard or pen Read more…
I’m back from the brief hiatus known as the Northeastern Writer’s Conference (NeCon), and I’ve chosen a piece that I haven’t come across before. This is Gilbert Rogers’ The Dead Stretcher Bearer (1916, size and media unknown, possibly oil), a fairly disturbing war piece. Now, before I get too far ahead, the version above is the one I think is color accurate. I also found one here that seems differently colored, but also seems Read more…
This week it’s one of my very favorite pieces, and one from the previous incarnation of the “This Week’s Art” threads. This is Caspar David Friedrich’s A Wanderer Above a Sea of Mist, a stunning piece for me and one that I will eventually (when I have wallspace) show proudly on my own wall. For me, this is one of those pieces that shows the pinnacle of what can be achieved in art. There’s Read more…
Before I brand myself as either only liking realistic art or only posting neoclassic/romantic art, I thought I’d add a little different look. This is George Bellows’ Club Night (aka, Stag Night at Sharkey’s; 1907, Oil on canvas, 43 x 53 inches), a “looser” image than I’ve been posting so far. Ironically, Bellows also did at least two other boxing images which were much more realistic, but this one stuck out for me. Bellows’ work Read more…
I’m getting excited, NeCon’s just a little bit away now. I leave the week after this coming week for it (on Tuesday the 17th), where I’ll spend a couple of days in Boston checking out the sites with Tod Clark. It should be fun, though I’m not 100% sure what to expect. It’ll be a nice vacation from the world of real life though.
This is Thomas Cole’s Expulsion – Moon and Firelight (1828, Oil on canvas, 35 7/8 in x 47 7/8 in), one of those pieces that I find very inspiring. It’s a bit different than the images by Cole that I normally cite (like his Course of the Empire series, check out http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/kjohnso1/colecourse.html), but it’s an interesting piece. It reminds me of the modern fantasy works, as if we are peering into Cole’s magical, unique Read more…
My friend is looking for music/movie reviews for the site that I helped him build, and I thought I’d pass it along to you fine folks. “Consider yourself a good judge of music? Well aren’t we all? The Culture Shock (www.thecultureshock.com) is looking for someone to write album and reviews from any era. We’d be looking for someone who can devote time enough to write three or four album reviews a month. If you’re interested, Read more…
This is Frederic Remington’s Moonlight, Wolf, (1909; oil on canvas, 20 1/16 x 26 in), a bit of a different image from the typical Remington western art you’d see. Much of the effect had to do with Remington’s life. Many of his western works appeared before the Spanish-American War, and after he became an artist on the ground in Cuba his work took on a much darker tone. In this image, Remington has dropped Read more…
This is Edward Poynter’s Faithful unto death (1865, Oil on canvas, 61″ x 29 3/4″), a piece of art that is not only is a strong image, but shows an accurate and interesting historical uniqueness. Many of Poynter’s works are historical, and this was one of his very first ones. The scene has been said to be based on Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s book The Last Days of Pompeii, which was a very influential book in the Read more…
This is Rob Gonsalves’ Still Waters, truly an impressive piece of art. It’s one of the most interesting styles I’ve seen, and it’s fascinating to look at. I’ve always loved the unique visions of artists like Magritte and Escher, who seem to be able to easily twist reality and yet keep beauty intact. Gonsalves has certainly done that here, and the technique is described on sites featuring his work as “magic realism”. I think Read more…
I’m back from a long, long trip to Washington, D.C., with this week’s new art piece. As always, let me know what you think of the art. This is James Ensor’s Skeletons Warming Themselves (1889, oil, 30″ x 24″), one of the pieces that I’ve been lucky enough to see in person at a museum. This work can be seen (or was last year at least) at the Kimball Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Read more…
In many a year ago, I was an architectural engineering student. I loved architecture, but I grew to hate number crunching (which is why I’m a silly artist-type now). But I still appreciate architecture, and this piece is a fantastic view of it. This is Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Medieval Town by Water (1813, oil, 94 cm x 126 cm), a great architectural piece I came across just today. A piece that for me sits on Read more…
Last year sometime (maybe even the year before, the last few have been a blur) I picked up a fantastic oversized book called Pulp Art ($12.95 no less!). The image above is from the book, it’s a cover of Spicy Mystery Stories Magazine (oil?, 1936) by pulp artist H.J. Ward. This pulp image in many ways seems like alot of the others that existed at the time. A dark villain, a dastardly deed, a gorgeous Read more…
This is Jacek Malczewski’s Death (1902, Oil on panel), and if you were a visitor to the former Message Boards of the Damned you may recognize this piece. It’s one of my personal favorites, filled with everything that makes a piece of art great. Malczewski is an important artist in Europe especially, a Polish artist who was very influential. Many of his works mix history with legend and mythology, and nearly all of his works Read more…