Which painting would you like to have at home?

Dear Gianluigi,

There are a significant number of rather lovely if maybe only picaresque oils done about a century ago in Norway, any one of which I would love to hang. Some are in the family, bought off the artists, including about six in Aunt's house in Oslo which ought to be in a National Museum, but none will come my way! It is a responsibility to hang them, which I did when my grandmother died! My mother has some as well, but I give up on those!

All the best from Fredrik

Dear Fred!
We meet in the forum crowd!
Ciao!
Would you like to post some pics?

Cheers!
Gianluigi

Yarmouth Harbour - Evening (1817) by John Crome 1768-1821.

Quoting the Tate catalogue Crome was the leading figure of the Norwich school. He had a number of loyal patrons in and around his native city, but he depended as much on teaching as on picture sales. He worked as a drawing master in nearby Yarmouth throughout his career, and painted its estuary, harbour and beaches several times. The drama in this small finished painting is largely evoked through the contrast between the warm glow of the sunset on the left, and the boats almost in silhouette in the foreground.

quote:

Originally posted by Gianluigi Mazzorana:
Dear Fred!
We meet in the forum crowd!
Ciao!
Would you like to post some pics?

Cheers!
Gianluigi

Dear Gianluigi,

I have some lovely photos I took in my late grandmother's house, but can not scan or post them at the moment. One day perhaps. The simple weight of them is enournous!

ATB from Fred, dear Gianluigi.

I would want all of Monet's Rouen cathedral series or failing that I'd settle for anything by Sisley.

Autumn Rythem by Jackson Pollock

Bruegel.
His painting had a quite an impact on me when i was a child. It showed the real/ugly side of living in the era. Quite bold and unique amongst boring church commisioned *prettied up* paintings, then.


Or Lautrec.
Decorative. But it has a wonderful sense of composition and colour. Simpler lines speak loud.

I'd like to have this one by Dali.

I have prints of Swans Reflecting Elephants

and Apparition of Of Face And Fruit on my walls courtesy of a picture framer who used to post here a few years back.

As well as having a certain aesthestic value, Dali paintings are fascinating upon closer inspection as various juxtapositions are revealed before your eyes.

I was always fascinated by the Surrealists when I was a boy. There were a good few Magrittes in the Local Art Museum which I thought were totally weird but very interesting. I admire Dali for his draughtmanship but I would not necessarily have him or Magritte on my wall, I would probably choose a large Monet


Rene Magritte

A large Monet. Very easy on the eye and very easy to live with.

I am very fond of Andrei Rublev's Trinity Icon which I have seen in The Tretykov Museum in Moscow. I have a reproduction at home.

A mesmerising portrait in the National Portrait Gallery of Sir Henry lee, the Queen's Champion. It just has the most direct and contemporary feel; he really looks like he would beat the proverbial out of you at any moment.

I could have chosen so many other pictures, but I could really live with this guy, and he'd scare away the burglars.

Actually if I could choose any piece of art to live with it would be a sculpture, probably by Brancusi.

I love the work of Diego Rivera - if I could fit it in, then I would like the mural from the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City which depicts the history of Mexico from 1692 through to the early 20th century. There is just so much going on that you could never possibly get bored.



Have also always loved Dadd's the Fairy Feller's master stroke

Fortunately for me, the paintings that I like most are some that I have bought and am in the process of adding to. They're also affordable. I'm not going to say what they are because I'm trying to get a particular painting right now, and I'm praying that no-one nabs it before I get there. There are a few prints made (5) but it's not the same as the real thing.
Funny thing about paintings. Prints are just representations of the original and don't have that connection with the work, sweat, frustration, anger and life experience that has been focused onto that actual piece of paper or canvas - all that swearing at it, walking away from it, coming back to it at 3 in the morning - a print just isn't the embodiment of the art at all. It's just a printed picture. A painting is more than the picture, it's a slice of the artists life, and when it's been sold, the artist will likely never see it again, so it's a sacrificial art too. It's an intensly personal thing. "It" being the actual work. Precious too - can't be replaced.

Great post Rasher

My wife is an artist in her 'spare' time. I'd not include her work in this thread because we have a personal relationship with her work that is hard to translate to others. When she sells work it also means something quite special, knowing that someone else is getting a kick out of a picture she has created.

Buying original art is a buzz for us too. We recently tracked down something having seen it first as a book illustration. Hunting down the picture, then the artist and the gallery in the USA and it finally arriving has added a great deal to our appreciation of the piece.

I can think of a large number of pictures that I love but which need to be seen in a specific environment to be fully appreciated. Some of my favourite pictures would need to be seen either in a group (like the Rothko Room in Tate Modern) or in a far bigger space than my home. That is why I chose something personal and intimate.

I love this thread. We had something similar a few years ago entitled 'Desert Island Art' I think and it was brilliant. It is fascinating seeing what people choose in relation to their apparent online persona!

Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:
I'd not include her work in this thread because we have a personal relationship with her work that is hard to translate to others.

And that's the same for every painter, whether a part-timer or a professional. Every artist is afraid that the relationship they have with their work has to be ended and passed to someone to continue it, and that could be a betrayal if it went to the wrong person. You shouldn't exclude your wife's work from this thread, the relationship with the art is the soul of it.
You know what I mean Bruce, and now everyone thinks I'm crazy.
You know in Dr Who, when it's being played out that he's the lonely time traveller because every relationship he has come to an end even before he has aged? - well, it's like that really. It has an inevitable "selling your soul" element about it so the process itself of producing art has an underlying sadness to it. But you have to trust that it has a life after you've passed it on.
I'm not an artist myself, just a romantic.

Not crazy Rasher!

Some images may be striking, or beautiful, or shocking but great art catches us at an emotional level too. It excites and connects, and it lasts and grows with familiarity; one reason why owning art is such a pleasure.

I have a relationship with the pictures we have bought, partly based on provenance but partly because they are like good music; learning and exploring the picture over time, seeing it in different ways with different moods. My wife's pictures have an extra element of course-but that is private!

Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by Rasher:
the relationship with the art is the soul of it.

And the thing, as you say, that makes you hate it and love it at the same time.

Hi all!
Of course the simple act of putting paint on a canvas, wood, wall, glass and so on doesn't make the difference between the artist and the novice.
Question: is it the artist only the one who succeeded in rationalizing his own feelings and "describe" them?
Is it a matter of sensibility when the artist see something where others see nothing.
I thing that art is the explosion of "a moment".
A blink of an eye.


Monet - Parasol

How can it be a blink of an eye when it takes hours to paint?

quote:

How can it be a blink of an eye when it takes hours to paint?

...or days, months or years. It is part of the genius of some artists that they capture the essence of an instant in a painting that may have taken so long.

I love the portraits of Lucian Freud. Interestingly I learned that they are produced over multiple sittings often over a great length of time. Over that time he still creates an impression of immediacy, and intensity, which far outweighs the emotional impact of a photograph.

Here is a portion of a self-portrait

Please look at the hand.
All the movement is there.

Klimt - Love

The paintings about Newton discovering the laws of gravity:

and this one

And here.
The man's hand closes firmly the lady's one in passion while the lady turn to the spectator in all her naivety.
A moment.

Renoir - Danse Camp

quote:

We recently tracked down something having seen it first as a book illustration. Hunting down the picture, then the artist and the gallery in the USA and it finally arriving has added a great deal to our appreciation of the piece.

Bruce - who is the artist?