I just want to put my hand in the spray of the water. Is that weird? I think it’s weird. Maybe I should go put myself in the corner?
Tag: painting
Sunday
This, in and of itself, is a very simple image – both stylistically and color-wise. There is nothing complex or challenging about it. However, in a room full of paintings, it is the one that draws you in and tugs you across the way to look at it. It radiates peaceful serenity and the gentle harmony of a world that is at rest before the oncoming storm of a new day.
Thursday
THIS PAINTING. This painting, you guys. This is the one painting that I always come to when I need to stop, take stock, and unwind, unravel, and put my sanity back together into a cohesive piece. This is a miracle in paint. From afar, it doesn’t look real. The closer you get, the more insanely realistic it becomes. By the time you’re within a few feet, you could swear you can hear the waves cresting and you’re going to get splashed with water. It’s some crazy mind trickery, but oh… oh, what wonderful trickery. It is, without a doubt, in my top twenty pieces of art ever – but it has such stiff competition.
Wednesday
This has kind of turned into the stereotypical model of the form of George Washington portrait, and I’m not entirely sure how accurate it was to begin with. I mean, to be fair, I’m sure the likeness was at least somewhat correct, however, it seems like they’ve managed to suck all the life out of him.
Thursday
Back in the day, portrait painting was one of a handful of legitimate jobs that women could do that brought prestige. However, they very often were attributed to their male counterparts for obvious reasons (aka, a woman couldn’t paint that well, no formal training, etc.), which makes this portrait special in the SLAM collection. It is correctly attributed, it is well-painted, the brush strokes are minimal and the subject appears almost airbrushed. Welcome to the 18th century equivalent of Photoshop!
Wednesday
I’m ever so fond of this painting. I always stop in front of it and admire the realism of the asters. The rest of the painting seems unfinished or even haphazard in comparison to the care taken to present the flowers in such perfect light, but oh, what beauty. <3 (Sorry, I’m working overnights and my brain is a puddle of mush at this point.)
Tuesday
The muted colors of this painting really hammer home the truth of the pollution levels of London in the early 20th century. This isn’t just some allegorical reference to global warming: this is the muted palette of an impressionist who thrived on bright, inviting colors. So sit on that and stew on it for a minute or two.
Monday
This is another case of ‘small but mighty’. All in all, it is a series of haphazard brushstrokes that don’t even really make a complete picture, yet, the impressions of everything that they want to convey somehow come across. The colors aren’t quite correct, but they are close enough to approximate what your eye believes it wishes to see, and it fills in the blanks and the extreme contrast of the figure of the little girl seems to be stark, even harsh and alien to the rest of the scene.
Sunday
Beckmann uses a very distinct style of intense dark-lining and heavy shadowing that gives many of his works a foreboding feel to them, despite their kaledescopic color qualities. This is one such work; the shadows feel out of place, the lighting not quite right, everything is just slightly surrealistically off-putting, yet, there isn’t anything quite wrong about it.
Thursday
This painting is a bit like ‘choose your own adventure’ but with colors and shapes. You know it’s meant to be goats and you know it’s meant to be mountains, but everything else is subjective.