Let’s take a closer look at Vincent van Gogh’s Grass and Butterflies. I’m always impressed at how well van Gogh was able to inject life into even the most simple subjects. There’s a sense of movement and activity about it. I’ll cover: Vibrating Colors The painting features a vibration of broken color. Van Gogh wove … Read more
Let’s take a look at a stunning portrait by Gordon Coutts, Waiting. I first saw this painting at the New South Wales Art Gallery. It stopped me in my tracks, despite it being a subtle painting in a dramatic room. Until that point, I had no idea who Coutts was. But it prompted me to learn … Read more
Let’s take a look at Vincent van Gogh’s iconic Café Terrace at Night. I’ll cover: Van Gogh describes it well: “On the terrace, there are little figures of people drinking. A huge yellow lantern lights the terrace, the façade, the pavement, and even projects light over the cobblestones of the street, which takes on a violet-pink … Read more
Let’s take a closer look at Woman With a Parasol by Claude Monet. This painting embodies Impressionism and Monet’s work. A fleeting moment captured with light colors and fresh strokes. I’ll cover: (You can download a high-resolution version of the painting here. You get to see Monet’s strokes with remarkable clarity.) Key Facts and Ideas … Read more
“A painting requires a little mystery, some vagueness, and some fantasy.” Edgar Degas Let’s take a closer look at Edgar Degas’ ballet dancers. It’s a large body of work, containing around 1,500 paintings, sketches, pastels, and sculptures. Degas sums them up nicely in the above quote. I cover: A Study of Movement and Life Degas … Read more
“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” Vincent van Gogh Let’s take a closer look at Vincent van Gogh’s Irises. A beautiful display of shape and color with an illustrator-like feel. I’ll cover: Key Facts and Ideas For a painting simply of flowers, there’s a lot of meaningful history behind it. Here … Read more
Let’s take a closer look at Claude Monet’s Waterloo Bridge series. A beautiful display of color and atmosphere, as you would expect from Monet. The series includes over 40 paintings created from 1899 to 1904. Though many have since been sold to private collections, lost, or destroyed; only a handful remain visible to the public. … Read more
Let’s take a closer look at Michelangelo Caravaggio’s Basket of Fruit. A delicate still life by an intense and controversial artist. It’s amazing to think Caravaggio painted this centuries ago, without the technology and state-of-the-art brushes, paints, and tools we have today. Just shows that today’s advantages are helpful but not necessary for the creation … Read more
In this post, I take a closer look at Marie Bashkirtseff’s The Umbrella. A subtle yet powerful painting. Bashkirtseff painted it in her early 20s, just a year or so before she died at 25. I cover: Who’s the Girl? There’s little information surrounding this painting; I picked it based on technique rather than any … Read more
In this post, I take a closer look at Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich. It is an iconic work of Romanticism that features a man standing on the edge of the rocky terrain, looking out over the foggy landscape. I cover: Key Facts and Ideas It is also referred to … Read more