Favorite Paintings

[donnie]

...we were actually the only ones visiting, which made the guided tour that much more special

Yes, like a personal tour.

[Kitty]

Thought this one was very nice, Radio Girl by Michael Koelsch. Found this one the Old Time Radio Lovers Facebook group.

[donnie]

That's an interesting one. It looks almost like photorealism, but with a little hint of something surreal about it, somehow. The microphone needs lowering—I wonder if the artist did that deliberately to make her seem dominated by it?

[Kitty]

The microphone needs lowering—I wonder if the artist did that deliberately to make her seem dominated by it?

I think so. It looks like she's a teenager.

[Kitty]

This is pretty funny!! I learned about this in my Wide Awake book from 1879. They had a section talking about artists, and they mention a painter named W. H. Beard who drew bears. I googled the ones they were talking about. The first one is called Bears on a Bender, and the second Bears in a Melon Patch.
The third, a little more grim, is called Bulls and Bears.

From my book:

"Mr. Beard has a large and interesting painting now on his easel which is full of variety and life. It is called 'Bulls and Bears.' It is intended to represent, in a comical way, the brokers of Wall Street, New York, who are called Bulls, or Bears, as they may happen to wish to send stocks up or down. In this painting a disorderly crowd of bulls and bears are seen bellowing and roaring, goring, and tearing, plunging and tumbling over each other in the wildest turmoil and confusion. The satire it suggests is severe but just."

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[donnie]

How about that! An unusual artist for sure. I like the texture he achieved in the top one.

[BettyLouSpence]

I recently discovered this artist, Claude Lorrain, a Baroque era landscape painter born in France. Here's a work painted from 1646-1647 called Sunrise:

[donnie]

Oh, MAN! Isn't that wonderful. Look at the way the dark foliage of the tree stands out against the golden sunset. And the beauty of the sky at the top... just breathtaking, in terms of composition and values. And that point you mentioned earlier about the attraction of paintings with the human figures dwarfed by the landscape—so striking here.

Yes, Claude Lorraine is one I'm only vaguely aware of. I need to explore his work more, that's for sure.

[Mrs. Danvers]

I love the bears and the cattle. And the work of Claude Lorrain, love that too, I'd like to be just sitting there with a book, it's such a bucolic scene.

[donnie]

I'd like to be just sitting there with a book, it's such a bucolic scene.

I was just thinking the same...actually I'd like to live there.