[QuestaNotte]

Here's an idea: post your favourite paintings! We've basically got songs, movies, tv and poems, so, inspired by my art homework, I thought I'd start this topic!

Dancers In Blue by Edgar Degas



Antibes by Claude Monet

[Cathy]

Ooooh excellent idea, Kirsty!

I like your Monet one very much indeed.

I have several favourites, but will post just a couple for now...

Van Gogh's sunflowers



There's a story behind that one, but not going into that today...

and, I also love Walasse Ting's paintings - there's a fish one that I really like, but this one is also very colourful, I think.

[QuestaNotte]

I just want to transport myself to that scene in the Monet, like with the beach on Islay that Simon King was on.
I love Cezanne's still life too. I don't know what this is called.

[Stephen]

I quite like the work of David Hockney. Here's one of his paintings:

[Cathy]

I have a certain affinity with this picture:



Seems I am not alone, as I gather it has been stolen more than once...

[QuestaNotte]

I think it is still stolen, if you see what I mean. I don't think they got it back after the last time. Shame.
I like this Salvador DalÌ. It was stolen from the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art in Glasgow, I think. But they got it back, and it's now in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, also in Glasgow.

Christ of St John of the Cross

[Josh]

I love Galatea of the Spheres, also by Dali.



I love how in modern days with computer technology that sort of thing would be pretty easy to make, but in Dali's time that was such original thinking.

This Dali's a cool one too.

[QuestaNotte]

He used to induce hallucinatory states upon himself so he could image things to paint. Christ St John is much better seen in real life. It's really tall, and it draws you in. I've only seen it once though, and I don't think there's any more DalÌ in Scotland.

[Josh]

QuestaNotte, on Jul 3 2007, 06:05 PM, said:

He used to induce hallucinatory states upon himself so he could image things to paint.

Yeah I kind of figured that he must have done that I was reading some stuff up on Dali and the surrealist movement recently though, and it began with automatic writing - the uncensored expression of the subconconcious (or rather, superconcious) mind, just writing a stream of conciousness. The art surrealist movement began the same way, although it was later refined into the stuff that Dali did. But to begin with it was all automatic drawing, I guess the expression of dreams and unordered, unrational thinking. Even without the hallucingenic influences I could imagine someone like Dali, thinking about art the way he did, could have got the same sort of pictures.

[QuestaNotte]

Yes, a lot of the stuff came from dreams. Have you looked at anything by Magritte? It's interesting to compare the styles.
I also like DalÌ's Idylle Atomique. The title means 'atomic romance'.

[Josh]

Beautiful pic that! I'll look into Magritte.