paintings

[piranha]

1ginko asked about our favourite painting, and i replied:

i don't have a favourite painting. i don't even have a set of favourite paintings. what speaks to me changes, and i keep finding new art that amazes me. the latest was ... *rummage* ... madrones at eagle creek by kesler woodward, whose work i really like in general; i can lose myself in his paintings for a long time.

and it occurred to me that i write too rarely about art i like, so i am copying this comment to remedy that a little. i think this mostly happens because i tend to wallow in art; i find something i like, and i'll sink into it and swim around in that world, and then i become ... filled. and writing about art on a full mind doesn't work for me; the writing takes away from the experience. unfortunately, writing about it a little later feels banal, like i can never capture how i felt, not even close. but hey, i can at least point and say "look! shiny!"; *wry grin*.

i'd be interested if anyone wants to point me at their own current or eternal favourites.

Comments

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed looking at Woodward's work - thanks for the pointer. I think my favourite is the snowy birches (http://keslerwoodward.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/snow_on_the_hillside_pitn.jpg). But I'm a sucker for careful balancing of white, black and beige/pink/ochre shades.

"In trade": I was very absorbed by Jan Haag's embroidery (http://janhaag.com/NP13Kala.html) for a while (I remember the pictures as showing more detail than they do now).

[lorres.livejournal.com]

*boggle*
I tend to fall into anything by Cezanne because of the way he puts the paint on the canvas, in almost little squares or patches. So you can walk up close and get your mind blown and then back up and get it blown again.

Salvador Dali is simply God when it comes to painting. He's a timeless master of the highest order. His masterworks series not only has mind-expanding content, but the craft of the composition is superb.

whew! I have to take a moment to calm down here! It's so exciting to think of those guys.

I'm fortunate to live in an area that has many art museums, so I go to them a lot and have favorite paintings I like to revisit. One painting in the Clark Art Institute collection is one I visit over and over. It's anonymous, from the 15th c. and it is of several apostles of Christ. Embedded in the faces are faint images from the life of Jesus.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Visual art? Hmm.

I like Freeman Patterson's photography (http://www.freemanpatterson.com/), especially when he's balancing regions having far more- and less-salient detail, but detail in both.

Alex Grey's painting (http://alexgrey.net/a-gallery/theolg.html).

Madrones at Eagle Creek

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

What a great painting! Actually, it makes me a little embarrassed, because my first thought upon seeing it was that I would love love love to have bedsheets with that image on them... and then thinking that Oh, I am a Bad Person to trivialize Art.

But I would still love to have madrone bedsheets.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite paintings of all time is Brueghel's Wedding Dance (http://faculty.etsu.edu/kortumr/HUMT2320/northernrenaissance/htmdescriptionpages/wedding.htm). It doesn't look like much, small on the screen like that. But I first saw it at the Detroit Institute of Art, where it's around the corner in its own little corner, taking up most of the wall. I came upon it and was dumbfounded. Wow. What a great painting. What energy and happiness and sorrow and life-force is in that one painting!