My Favourite Paintings

Many artists have inspired me and this week I thought I would share my favourite paintings with you:

Gustav Klimt

‘Danae’ 1907/08
It’s a truly beautiful painting, filled with love and honesty

Tamara de Lempicka

‘Jeune fille en vert’ (Green Lady) 1927
A fantastic, vibrant piece of Art Deco

Edward Hopper

‘New York Movie’ 1939
The loneliness, the solitude of the standing woman is tangible especially as she is amongst a crowd.

Jackson Pollock

‘The Deep’ 1953
A great sense of depth in this  abstract piece, you could fall right into the abyss – and get lost forever.  His penultimate painting.

 William Holman Hunt

‘Light of the world’ 1852/56
A beautifully crafted painting, great composition, colours and symbolism. Incredible detail and to think it was painted by candle light.

 Peder Kroyer

‘Summer night on the south beach at Skagen’ 1893
Beautiful subtle colours, great narrative – what are the women talking about? Are they alone on the deserted beach? Excellent.

Claude Monet

‘Water-lilles’ c1916
Huge painting. Great depth to this near abstract piece.

John Singer Sargent

‘Carnation, lily, lily, Rose’ 1885/86
Great, huge painting – exquisite in every detail.

Mark Rothko

‘No 12’ 1951
Huge painting that is full of colour, expression and feeling. The only painting to ever make me cry – it’s an emotional piece.

Franz Marc

‘Red Deer’ 1912
Beautiful colours, beautiful interplay of shapes – a stylised gem.
 
J.M.W. Turner

‘Rain, steam and speed…’ 1844
Some of Turner’s latter paintings are the early beginnings of abstract art. Great colours, composition and feeling. Awesome.

Vincent van Gogh

‘A wheatfield, with Cypresses’ 1889
The be all and end all of painting. What it lacks in dynamic composition it more than makes up for in feeling and emotion. You can almost feel the swirling wind in the trees the clouds and on your face. When you see it at the National Gallery, London it positively glows like a beacon. A painting that all others should be judge by.

Giacomo Balla

'Mercury passing in front of the sun, seen through a telescope’ 1914Great design, complementary colours and very dynamic. Great speed and movement.

 
David Bomberg

‘The mud bath’ 1914
To me it sums up the early days of the ‘Great war’ – are they random shapes or limbs?
 

Gustave Courbet
‘Still life – apples & pomegranate’

There so real you can almost taste them. Truly influential painter.

Michelangelo Marisi (Caravaggio)

‘The supper at Emmaus’ 1601
Its sheer scale, composition and fantastic dynamics are breath taking. A lesson in composition skills, dynamics of the picture plain and Chiaroscurro.

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

‘Le lit’ 1892
This beautiful ‘peinture a l’essence’ painting has been loosely sketched in. It’s a very honest and tender moment captured of two ladies starring loving into each other’s eyes. Magical.

Mark Gertler

‘Merry-go-round’ 1916
This is a very striking painting as its primarily orange and blue, almost like a graphic design poster but without the typography. In many ways it appears very stiff, stilted but it does curiously it does have a sense of movement. Its stiff little figures ride on white horses - wearing army and navy uniforms go round and round. Food for thought.

It would be great to know your favourite paintings too! Please leave  a comment to tell me your favourite painting and artist.  If you would like to learn to paint or draw you can use the blog contact form and I will get back to you with details of my latest classes.

Best wishes

Lee