I look at a lot of art, which I realize is an immense surprise to the three of you that regularly read these articles. Whether it is art in books, or in galleries, or online, I spend a fair amount of time just looking at whatever art comes my way. Thanks to that, I sometimes […]
After being in awe for the hour, after what was supposed to be a quick minute checking out just one piece for this article, I came to the realization that many of Franklin Booth's ink pieces show something magnificent. With his intricate linework, wonderful composition, and hectic scene, I find it hard to look away.
This Week’s Art: Sickert’s “The Camden Town Murder”
What I find fascinating about art is how much the idea of audience interpretation comes into play. Whether it’s a detailed illustration, or something abstract, there’s always a sense that good art brings the viewer into this new world, for better or for worse. In this case, in a much more overt way than the painting […]
For most of my life I have been a fan of truly intricate artwork. Not necessarily photo-realistic, which I can take or leave, but art pieces that have wonderfully tiny details throughout. Think the engraving work of Gustave Doré, the incredible works of Franklin Booth, or the fascinating details created by Bernie Wrightson in his adaptation of Frankenstein. […]
So, let’s get this out of the way first. I haven’t had a chance to read the story that inspired this illustration yet, but a story about death carrying off a dead soldier’s beloved is right up my alley. Having been an inspiration for Poe, vampire stories, and all manner of 18th and 19th century horror, […]
It may be clear to some of you who are familiar with my (more or less) past life as an illustrator and fine artist, but I have a bit of an odd streak. That’s what makes us all unique, and I wouldn’t try to be normal for all the money in the world. I think […]
This Week’s Art: Falero’s “Witches going to their Sabbath”
When I am talking about art, I often point to nudity and gore as being the “easy way out.” Much of the time they are both overdone, mostly for shock value when there is no real concept behind the art. Here’s some nudity! We’re awesome! There are times, though, where an artist has taken the […]
This Week’s Art: Cole’s “Course of Empire: Destruction”
Every morning, I wake up and look across the room at a Thomas Cole painting. Well, let’s face it, I’m not enormously rich so it is actually an old print. The print is of one of Cole’s five “Course of Empire” paintings, in this case “Consummation.” It’s been a personal favorite for a very long time, but […]
This Week’s Art: Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With”
“The Problem We All Live With” is one of Norman Rockwell’s most famous paintings, and has been discussed frequently by so many others that I encourage everyone to seek out those articles. That said, it being one of my favorite pieces, I hope I have something to add to the cacophony of voices in the […]
Sometimes, I see an image and I feel that I’ve been in that situation, that I’ve lived through something similar. It might be the artist’s technique, or the medium that was used, or maybe it’s just something in the way the character looks. This Schikaneder painting is one that has always given me pause, based on all three […]
This Week’s Art: Gentileschi’s “Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
When it comes to painting any religious doctrine, particularly the Old Testament, there are literally thousands of paintings. It’s a popular, yet somewhat touchy, subject. There is a reserved reverence for many biblical paintings, and you often lose the sense that the stories within are based on mythology and the intimation of a higher purpose. […]
This Week’s Art: Henry Ossawa Tanner’s “The Banjo Lesson”
One of the challenges of memorable art is capturing an emotional moment between people. It can be something extreme like a moment of action, or something very subtle in the way a profile looks. Hitting the middle ground of softer actions and subtleties is difficult, it can lean one way or the other very quickly. […]
This Week’s Art: Goya’s darkly satirical painting “Witches Sabbath”
There’s a lot to unpack with Goya, especially for someone like me. I love traditional art, the kind you find in paintings that are hundreds of years old. I also love horror art, for those few fans I have left or those who have visited my art site it’s a fairly clear thing. So Goya speaks […]
This Week’s Art: Spitzweg’s “The Butterfly Hunter”
Being a slightly eccentric and sarcastic person, I am often drawn to characters in books, film, and art who are also eccentric and offer a bit of satire. Carl Spitzweg painted quite a few images that are perfect for my sensibilities, and looking at "The Butterfly Hunter" hits me right where it should on a cold, dark day. Considering the darkness of last issue's Doré painting and the upcoming Goya piece, I thought a nice break with something more humorous would be good.
This Week’s Art: Doré’s “La Famille du Saltimbanque: L’Enfant Blessé”
It is not a small painting, which is certainly part of it. Doré's La Famille du Saltimbanque: L'Enfant Blessé is over six feet tall, and seeing it made me literally stop in my tracks. Those are the moments I live for, the very reason why it is important to see art in a museum or gallery.
This Week’s Art: Levêque’s “La Parque (The Fates)”
Levêque was really hitting all manner of emotions with this piece.He painted the Roman versions of the fates, the Parcae. Rather, while I think he captured the essence of the Parcae, what he really captured here was existence itself. This is the spectacle of fate, on hand to show life and death in action.
This Week’s Art: Schoonover’s “Hopalong Takes Command”
I’ve always loved this piece by Frank Schoonover, though that can be said for many of the pieces I’ve seen by the artist. He was one of the classic illustrators, and being primarily an illustrator myself it’s easy to see why he’s always been one of my favorites. Hopalong Takes Command is an exceptional example of Schoonover’s […]
There’s probably something to be said about me when it comes to the reasons why I like “The Prisoner” by Yaroshenko. Maybe I’m a darker soul, a lonely one, or even just someone who contemplates life frequently, but this type of image really speaks to me. It’s not that this painting is particularly complex, either. […]
This Week’s Art: Processions in the art of John Singer Sargent
As I was looking at John Singer Sargent’s work, in anticipation of writing today’s article about his wonderful “Cashmere” painting below, I started looking at many of his other works. Now, that’s not at all unusual, I find myself leaping down the rabbit hole when it comes to art most of the time, and looking […]
This Week’s Art: David Roberts’ Great Temple of Aboosimble Nubia
There are certainly artistic sways to and fro, but his accuracy is truly astonishing. Roberts not only captured the sense of being there, but accurately captured the details as well. He used time honored tricks for showing scale as well, such as the fine folks shown in the close-up below. They don't seem very interested in being so close to these epic statues, I guess that's not the reaction I would have personally.
When I talk about art, and believe me that’s pretty much every day of my life, I often touch on the things that I really love about particular pieces. Sometimes it’s composition, or texture, even just a color within the piece. Sometimes I get very technical with it, often it probably comes across more like, […]
This Week’s Art: Souls on the Banks of the Acheron
Welcome to the first of what I hope are billions of words about art, and mostly what I think about certain pieces. Before I get started, let me just preface the whole works with the idea that the wee image here probably isn’t going to do much justice to the work. So, on all of […]
I’ve been a big fan of the works of Zdzisław Beksiński for a long time. They are like dreams and, often, nightmares, come to life. Beksiński himself even said as much about his own work, and from what I’ve read about him he was a fascinating person. Especially in the many ways that I feel the same […]
Some of my favorite art pieces are those that show emotion, that have an energy to them. True, most beloved pieces have an energy all their own, even if it’s subtle. But there are some pieces where that energy is something more evocative. I’ve seen many of Giovanni Boldini’s paintings over the years, often of the […]
This Week’s Art: Dore’s Death, Life-In-Death, and the Ancient Mariner
I read a lot of poems, and one of my very favorite poems is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It’s a dream made for an illustrator, filled with such great visions, and it’s probably one of the reasons that it’s been a popular poem for so long. I have a […]
This Week’s Art: Matania’s Paulina in the Temple of Isis
When I post my “This week’s art” articles, I like to have as much information about a piece as I can get. Sometimes, like yesterday’s article, the piece is quite popular, and there’s lots of information about it. Other times, it seems like only one site has the beautiful art, but won’t put any information […]
I love the illustrators of the early-mid 20th century. Rockwell, Wyeth, Pyle, and many more, they just have this great sense of drama and storytelling in their work. Even without knowing the stories that they went with, as is sometimes the case, the images still cause a reaction. Case in point, this image by one […]
The first of my renewed “This Week’s Art” articles, where we discuss a particular piece of art, is Vasily Polenov‘ Birchwood Alley (Oil on canvas, 1880). Here’s what it looks like, and click on it for a larger version. 19th century Russian art is something I’ve become more and more intrigued by over the years, and this […]
I think it’s important as an artist to look at various kinds of art each day. Just as it is important for graphic designers, filmmakers, authors, and anyone with a creative side, seeing the works of others can help a creative person learn more about what they do. In that respect, I used to write […]
I think it’s important as an artist to look at a lot of art, and in fact I love nothing more than to flip through the many art books I have on the shelf. Seeing different styles, different techniques, and just appreciating what others have done is a great way to learn more about art, […]
Awhile back (and by “awhile back” I mean “over a year ago”) I wrote an art blog of Frederic Edwin Church’s beautiful painting called The Icebergs (check out the blog here… I”ll wait.) I won’t bore you with the specs again (I’ll be boring you with other ways now), but seeing it in person I […]
Continuing on my art posts of really happy, joyous images (reference: sarcasm), here is Vasily Perov’s Found Drowned (1867, Oil on canvas, 27″ x 42″). I’ve had a bookmark for it for awhile, and I think it’s an interesting piece. I think it’s one of those pieces that has a story behind it, but still […]
I’m all about cheery pics tonight, the other two I was thinking of were pretty dark too. Something in the air maybe? This is Jules Elie Delaunay’s Plague in Rome (1869, Oil on canvas, 52″ x 69″), also known as The Angel of Death. I might be wrong, but this isn’t the happiest of […]
Ok, so it’s been a little while since the last one of these art blogs. I’ll see if I can’t post a few more of them, and without the 4 months between them. Above is Ivan Aivazovsky and Ilya Repin’s Pushkin’s Farewell to the Sea (1887, Oil on canvas), one that caught my eye […]
Russ’s Art Blog: Vedder – The Questioner of the Sphinx
I've run across a number of Elihu Vedder's pieces before, and this one is one of my favorites. This is Vedder's, The Questioner of the Sphinx, a piece that for me is always inspiring.
This is Lord Frederick Leighton's "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it", a piece that caught my eye when I was looking for something else (which is often the case).
It's been awhile since I've written an art blog, which I've done off and on for a few years. I usually discuss a piece of art, almost always one that I like myself, and give the world my thoughts on it.
Russ’s Art Blog: Seeing it in real life – Pollice Verso
I don’t get to art museums and galleries enough, but it can really give you a different impression of a piece of art. In this case, last week I was at the Phoenix Art Museum and saw the piece here, Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down) by Jean Leon Gerome (oil, 1872, 38″ x 59″). First off, […]
We’re back on a single piece of art this week (since I couldn’t decide on a different topic), this time it’s John Everett Millais’ The Blind Girl (Oil on canvas, 1854-1856, 32 1/2″ x 24 1/2″). It’s one of those pieces where the title really does impact what you see in the image, or at […]
This week, I’m talking about artist Gregory Manchess (www.manchess.com), one of those artists who seems to be able to fit into any genre. Whether it’s work for movies or television, books or magazines, or even just fine art, Manchess has a great ability to capture different ideas in interesting and exciting ways. If you happen […]
On the road of the new and improved (or at least different) “This Week’s Art” posts, this week I thought I’d talk about an art term. Partly for those who may not know what it means, and partly because I get to learn a little too. This week’s art term/word is “Trompe l’oeil”. No, I […]
As I mentioned last week, I’m hoping to change things up a little with the art blogs, and offer more than just a “piece of the week”. I’ll be featuring artists sometimes that you may be familiar with, if not in name than in work. This week, I’m going to talk about Michael Deas (www.michaeldeas.com), […]
After a busy (and depressing) holiday season, I’m attempting to restart the art blog idea. This time though, I’m going to work things a little differently. Instead of just a piece of art each week, I’m going to alternate on artistic ideas. Some weeks will still be about a certain piece, other weeks about artists […]
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, […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Here’s another week of art commentary, please let me know your thoughts on the art or other comments, and I will be posting this on my MySpace as well. This is Arnold Bocklin’s Self-portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle (oil on canvas, 1872). I like alot of Bocklin’s work, and I’m becoming a big fan […]
I’ve thought about it, and not only are these posts fun but they help me grow as an artist. In it, I pick an image from past art and give out my thoughts on it. I’m not really an expert (though I have actually had the classes), and what I say is merely how I […]
