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Friday 20 March 2009

A Few artists I worship

I've been to the national gallery quite a few times this year, and there are two paintings, just two, that you physically have to drag me away from - I'm an absolute sucker for lighting - the way it hits objects and bounces off them or filters through them... LOVE IT
the first one, by Joseph Wright in 1768 (!!!!) is quite macabre in terms of subject matter, but seriously - just check out that light! (those exclamaitions were because this dude was SO far ahead of his time style/light wise... like Rembrandt. That man was a...i don't actually have words - just wow. I'd actually put Rembrandt up along side Da Vinci and Mozart in terms of genius)


i got the picture off wikimedia where it's massive - like 2400x1600 or something insanely big like that, if you wanted to see it bigger, but i tweaked it in photoshop to make it look more like it actually is in real life - the colours are much more vibrant and richer - on the picture there it's all pretty much shades of grey

a couple of pics by rembrandt to prove my point:

While all his peers were churning out eyelashless people with faces like masks, - like greek statues with bits of colour slapped on, like this:


he was doing things like these:

the other one from the national gallery that you have to drag me away from is this:
by turner

No photo does this man's incredible work justice - NOTHING in print i've ever seen actually even begins to capture what it's like to stand in front of one of his canvasses. This painting is in a tiny little alcove in the national gallery, with walls painted dark red. Turner in his will asked to have two of his paintings displayed there, alongside two other paintings by a dutch artist. This painting is huge. It's about 6ftx 4.5 ft at LEAST
and when i stand in front of it - i can actually feel the warmth of that sun on my face. I know it sounds crazy, but i can physically feel it on my skin - THAT is why this man is one of the greats.

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