Your favorite Painter?

The Question: Who is your favorite painter?


I have one in mind, and I'll write about that tomorrow, but in the mean time I thought I'd pose the question to the rest of the Chud-munity(c). I'm curious to see if people are more interested in contemporary artists who work with paint as their medium, or if people are still enthralled with more classical works. My favorite artist is someone who also did illustrations and prints, so if your favorite happens to also work in mediums other than paint, thats cool too.

Thanks everyone, the replies have been interesting so far! Alot of good choices. I'm also a Dali fan like some of you, though also like some of you, no art history expert.

Here is my favorite painter: David Roberts

I'll put a few images of his in the thread, and then link to a few more


He was a Scottish painter in the 19th century, mainly painted the Holy Land, and Egypt ETC. He was part of the art movement called "Orientalism", which was western artists working either with eastern influences or painting eastern subjects. It just so happens to be my favorite art movement ever. I have been a huge fan of Robert's work since my mom bought a post card book of his Holy Land paintings and lithographs when I was 10 or so.

A trademark technique of his was to make ancient ruins appear grander than they were in real life by including undersized humans in the painting to give a sense of immense scale.

Feel free to check out his stuff on AllPosters. They have a pretty great collection of images there. I have a few prints and reproductions on my walls, but most of these are a little expensive for my budget sadly. I got some nice prints for last Christmas though! It's hard for me to pick four (the maximum number of images that can be included in a single message board posting) images that can communicate the depth and breadth of his style and the places he painted.


PS I am having trouble including the Allposters images in the thread, so some of the ones I'm going to include here are not really my favorites, just the best I could find through google image search.

PPS Never mind... finding a plethora of images on the google.. Hard to pick my favorites, arg!





For every photo I just included, I feel like I've just inflicted a grave injustice by not including another brilliant example of his work: P

Hm, for some reason it would not let me put 4 images in my first post, so I decided to include 7total just for the heck of it by using this second post

PPPPS: The first image on this second post is one that I currently have on the wall of my room!

A friend of mine just got back from visiting the Dali Museum. She said it was really cool, I intend to go next time I get down to FL

Those are really interesting MoonBaseNick. The Francis Bacon one is really unsettling. Reminds me of those horrible horrible drawings from that ultra-banned children's book of scary stories.

And.. that is a cool animation. Must take alot of talent to animate with charcoal. I make a mess whenever I try to use it, and keeping each frame so much like the one that preceded it must have been a challenge of immense proportions. You're right about the sense of movement too, kind of mesmerizing actually

I had actual nightmares about the scary stories series growing up. They are the only books in the entire world I think should be banned from school libraries. The drawings are sick, nightmarish, and yes, very very well done.




Seriously, whoever approved those for a children's book should appear on "To Catch A Predator"

Moonbasenick,

Yes, in fact, they are among the most frequently banned (or "challenged") books in the nation.

What is the name of that big painting Bosch did? The garden one? My brother brought me back a big reproduction of that one from Europe. It's interesting, but kind of bizarre and unsettling. Not the kind of thing I want to look at every day. He sure was great with the detail though, your'e right about that. So many little things going on to look at

Thanks, nekkerbee. That's exactly what I was refering to.

Just googled some of those. Very cool indeed, Zhukov!

OMG!

Thats from Robert's wiki page! I see what you are saying about how similar they are. I love the light in both of their works, and the beautiful lighting is part of what has always appealed to me about Roberts. I just happen to prefer the scenery Roberts chose to focus on. There is something really calming about how he depicts those ancient ruins, the way he paints them in that warm afternoon light, with the deep cool shadows. I love the people just chilling out, or going about their daily lives with those huge weathered monuments to the past all around them, paying them little mind, as if they're simply just particularly unusual rock formations. I've always wished he'd done more historically based works though ( Would love to have seen scenes of ancient Rome), but thankfully Turner had that covered I guess

That first one is absolutely goreous. The light in the second one is excellent, but I prefer out door scenes

I'd have been really surprised if no one mentioned Giger! His art sure is interesting and evocative

Heh, the details are so freaky though! From what I've read about the painting, alot of the imagery is allegorical , and unless you're an art history expert it's difficult to decode beyond "whoa, look at those people and that giant sparrow-monster..". Cool looking though. Kind of reminds me of "Where's Waldo?" , in the level of detail on display

Those are pretty darn scary. Very unsettling, IMHO

I'm not saying it's bad art. Just the opposite. It's very evocative and unsettling. Must mean he's doing something right. I wouldn't hang it on my wall, but that's just because I don't want to become creeped out by my walls

If I owned a hotel you totally know those would be going up in 1408.