Dorian Grey? Not in this attic

Note: This is a W.A.R. Post. What is it good for? ….Worth Another Blog) They say women are vain – but when it comes to artists it seems that men never get tired of looking at their own reflection – and painting them.  Van Gogh was one of the most prolific self-portrait artists, (and one of

Google Doodles Do – Art

NEW POST ON BOOKSTAINS HERE Google Doodles began in 1998 and were unanimated and unhyperlinked until 2010, when Sir Isaac Newton was honoured with the very first animation. Over 2000 international and regional Doodles have appeared through its homepages, featuring artists, personalities, musicians etc and by 2019, over 4000 Doodles had been created for Google

Happy Eccentric Birthday Salvador Dali!

  Today is the birthday of the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali (1904 – 1989)  As I have already written a post about the artist (here) I thought it might be fun to take a look at the personality of Dali the man – the fun bits.   This video I think shows the artist’s very individuality.  Dali illustrates

Art I LOVE – Pierre Bonnard

French artist and printmaker  Pierre Bonnard (1867 – 1947) was  one of the founding members of Les Nabis.  Les Nabis were a group of avant-garde Post Impressionists who distorted colour and composition to  decorative effect.  Bonnard was interested in unusual and unexpected angles and aerial perspectives – greatly influenced by Japanese prints. It is this which links him with Vuillard and the

Happy Birthday J M W Turner – Grand Master of the Elements – not all at Sea

Today is the birthday of British Romantic Landscape, seascape, watercolourist and printmaker  Joseph Mallord William Turner(b. London 1775 – 1851).  Turner understood the elements, for example when in 1834 parliament caught fire, Turner witnessed it.  He also sketched shipwrecks, storms and other natural phenomena like fog, rain, storms and above all the light and strove to capture it .  He was fascinated by the way

Happy Birthday Cindy Sherman!

Today is the birthday of conceptual portrait photographer and film director Cindy Sherman.  Sherman was born in New Jersey USA 1954.   She received the MacArthur award in 1995 and currently lives and works in New York.  She studied visual art at Buffalo State college, abandoning  painting for photography. “I didn’t want to make ‘high’ art, I

Turning over a new leaf – or two

It’s about time we had some more unusual art on here.  A while ago I posted about  artist Willard Wigan who micro sculptures can only be viewed through a microscope (tiny worlds between heartbeats)  I contrasted the micro art with the work of Hyperrealist sculptor Ron Meuck whose gigantic realistic sculptures have a unerving quality about

Happy Birthday Chaim Soutine!

Today is the birthday of Expressionist artist Chaim Soutine (b 1893 – 1943 Belarus)  Soutine who was inspired by classical painting in the European tradition and he favoured colour, texture and shape over representation.  His work acted as a bridge between traditional approach and the evolvment of Abstract Expressionism. Soutine was born near Minsk (when it was part of the Russian