Favourite Paintings

[mr egalli]

Inspired by the Jazz and Classical threads, and the fact that I recently found a new favourite:

Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, by James McNeill Whistler.

[kerrfunk]

I have a print of a Van Gogh village or street or something in my living room... couldn't find it right away on googleimage.

I also like vg's Bedroom in Arles. Something about the lines and the colors.


And I have a Renoir print, Two Sisters, that I am pretty fond of:


And this'll sound dumb, but I was at a county fair in Minnesota sometime in the early nineties, and there was a painting of a pig there... it was oil or pastel, I don't remember. I loved it. I have a picture of it in an old photo album (those are big funny books with actual photographs inside).

[kat]

I have a print of a Van Gogh village or street or something in my living room... couldn't find it right away on googleimage.

This one?

I believe the house on the corner was where he lived.

I love art, here are a few of my favorites...
These two are by Kathe Kollwitz, they were done in pencil.




Edvard Munch is amazing...but here's "The Scream"


I could go on...but I'll stop.

[Kochanie]

Salvador Dali. The man literally was a walking god or a walking insane asylum. It is called 'autosodomised by His own inspiration'.

I'm also a huge fan of modern art. I love anything that really sort of exemplifies psychology and how effed up humanity is. I've always wanted to own a piece of adult art, or a really great Van Gogh or Banksy. Just something really gritty and perverse. I like paintings and sculptures that make me question myself.

[bookworm77]

I'm a big fan of this Picasso piece, titled "Fleurs des mains" ("Flowers with Hands")



I love it because it's so ridiculously simple a painting; something a kindergartener could have done, but because it was created by Picasso, it's "a masterpiece." It's such a shining example of the power of celebrity in modern society. Why on earth should anyone care about a creation as primitive and crude as this one? Well, duh! PICASSO made it!

Also, before we stray too far from the idea of Dali, "La persistencia de la memoria," or "The Persistance of Time," remains one of my favorites, because I cannot figure it out for the life of me.



There's something about it that inspires me and fascinates me, but I can't put my finger on it, which is completely opposite my obsession with "Fleurs des mains:" the only reason I care about "Fleurs des mains" is because it told me something very clear and very plain the very first time I saw it. But this one... I just can't figure it out. I've read critical analyses of it, but still... there's something about it I just don't understand. Which reminds me that there will always be things in life that I don't understand, regardless of how much I read about it or how long I look at it.

Also, Georges Seurat's pointillism masterpiece "Un dimanche après-midi à l'Ile de la Grande Jatte" or "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" is one of my favorites, merely because it inspired one of the most profoundly beautiful scores in the history of music, Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George.



Also, as long as we're talking about pointillism, does anyone know what the original version of this one is called, and who made it? I can't for the life of me remember where I got the original image from. It wasn't a pointillism, and it was finished in a pink rinse, if I remember correctly. This ringing a bell for anyone? I've been trying to track it down for years.

[mr egalli]

Salvador Dali. The man literally was a walking god or a walking insane asylum. It is called 'autosodomised by His own inspiration'.

that's some crazy stuff right there, I'd not seen that one before. more insane than god I reckon- the man had erotic dreams about Hitler for crying out loud. I like some of his art though, like the painting of Christ above the earth (and the Chupa Chups logo), but as far as Surrealist art I prefer painters like Max Ernst, René Magritte and Joan Miró.

I have a print of a Van Gogh village or street or something in my living room... couldn't find it right away on googleimage.

I also like vg's Bedroom in Arles. Something about the lines and the colors.

yes. great colours indeed. Word to bookworm77 regarding Georges Seurat and pointillism as well.

my very favourite painter would have to be Claude Monet:


Impression, Sunrise.

Here's some more Picasso:


Three Musicians.

and some Paul Gaugin:


Tahitian Landscape.

plus, anything by Henri Rousseau is freaky but awesome (and too wide to include as an image):

http://www.cord.edu/faculty/andersod/rousseau_gypsy.jpg
The Sleeping Gypsy.

http://www.cord.edu/faculty/andersod/rousseau_snake.jpg
The Snake Charmer.

[RamboFBII]

Not really a fan of Georgia O'Keefe's other works, but her skyline/skyscraper paintings catch my eye, purely from an aesthetic/architectural perspective. I love the contrast and geometric theme of this one. Now, whether this particular subject was a contrast to her other more "feminine" compositions, I'm not quite sure.




Ralph McQuarrie's concept art for the pre-production phase of the first 3 Star Wars films has always captured my imagination. Even when I was 3 or 4, I already knew all the movies by heart and my parents would buy me anything Star Wars that they could find. This included a sketchbook of Return of the Jedi production art, which showed all the sketches that were done for Jabba, the Ewoks, the Rancor, the 2nd Death Star, Darth Vader's shuttle, the Rebel ships, etc. The hook for me was seeing just what Star Wars could've been. For some reason, it fascinated me because I guess this art helped me to imagine an even bigger universe than just what was in the movies. A universe where these things really did exist. This is what awakened the artist in me. Ever since I was that young, I've always had this subconscious obsession with wanting to delve into that universe where Star Wars takes place in my imagination and recreate all the spaceships and space stations I see there. That's geekdom to the extreme, but when I just sit idly in a chair with a pencil in hand and blank paper, those are the kinds of things that just naturally pour out of my mind onto the paper. For me to draw/sketch anything else is like HR Giger trying to paint puppies and sunflowers in the sunlight.



I'm also a big Hopper fan, just because his paintings are so simple, geometric, colorful, and maybe stoic.

Anyway, this is an awesome thread. I hope we can keep it going and expose each other to new artists or new appreciations for artists we'd previously overlooked.

[joydejavu18]

I always loved Van Gogh.

And I've also been a fan of Claude Monet. His work is beautiful.

[tender branson]

I've always loved Winslow Homer's work, especially for his depictions of trouble at sea:

[terri]

I'm also a big Hopper fan, just because his paintings are so simple, geometric, colorful, and maybe stoic.

ooh, "Nighthawks" is a good one. My favorite Hopper (and favorite painting, in general) is "Rooms By The Sea":