Your Favorite Paintings

[Nathan Dodge]

Fantastic, fantastic epitaph.

And I love Klee.

I first heard of Klee around 1994-95 when I read the classic 1960 Downbeat profile of pianist Bill Evans:


"[Evans'] clothes are just about what's in fashion, he shaves every morning, and his Manhattan apartment is an ordinary three-room affair. A bed, a few chairs, and a kitchen table is the furniture complement, all of it thoroughly bourgeois. A piano takes up half the living room. There is a hi-fi set and a television set, the latter of which he sits before almost every afternoon to apprise himself of the sports scene. He has some 50 books in two bookcases, but only two paintings decorate his walls. One, by Gwyneth Motian, wife of his drummer, Paul Motian, is a small but extremely effective abstraction. The other, by himself, is an attempt at design. It's terrible, but this has not stopped him. He continues to paint with this as his credo: 'I can be as good as Klee at least.'"

With my musical hero's (humorous) endorsement, I decided to investigate Klee's work--and loved it.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Juan Gris- The Siphon, 1913

 

[BigFitz]

Maybe a little to obvious for the lounge but I always liked Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks"

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Maybe a little to obvious for the lounge but I always liked Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks"

Obvious? Nah. It's good stuff.

 

[kyboots]

I love that painting and one I would always look for when in Chicago at the Art Institute. John

 

[LizzieMaine]

Anything by Hopper is fine by me -- he lived here in Rockland for a while, and some of our scenery shows up in his early work:

Buildings are the back of Rockland's Main Street, looking toward Tillson Avenue. All are still standing today.

Down Tillson Avenue, near the current site of the Coast Guard base.

Hopper never seemed to paint any of our buildings from the front. Apparently he'd rather see us going than coming. It's a pity he isn't around today, he'd love the Wastewater Plant.

 

[scottyrocks]

Maybe a little to obvious for the lounge but I always liked Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks"

I've always liked this painting.

 

[Miss Golightly]

Some works by two of my favourite Irish painters:

A Convent Garden, Brittany, c.1913 by William John Leech (1881-1968) - his use of light and colour in his paintings is sublime:

And pretty much anything by John Lavery - his paintings of his beautiful wife Hazel Lavery are among my favourites:

The Artist’€™s Studio: Lady Hazel Lavery with her Daughter Alice and Stepdaughter Eileen, 1909-13 by John Lavery (1856-1941)

Hazel in Rose & Gold:

This image of Lady Lavery appeared on Irish banknotes for many years:

 

[JakeHolman]

I'm going to add paintings by Klimt. Not that Art Nouveau is a particular favourite period for me but seeing the original paintings at a gallery some years ago they really took my breath away. The use of the gold leaf interwoven with paint really makes them 'transcendent'. If you get a chance to see an original I fully recommend it (I guess thats true of all paintings).

 

[vitanola]

Aside from the usual impressionist stuff that everyone loves, I have a particular interest in the work of Paul Doering (1864-1947), a Hollander who had a long career, painting classic Dutch interior scenes, still-lifes and portraits when in Europe, harbor scenes and ships when in New Orleans, and, as one of the founders of the Laguna Art Colony, Plein-Air scenes and beachscapes.

We once owned the seascape, the others were lifted form the Web, as I'm away form home and cannot photograph our own pictures.

Here is one of ours, an image of which is somehow in our Photobucket files:

 

[BigFitz]

Another Hopper I've had the pleasure of seeing in person.
"Pennsylvania Coal Town"

 

[BigFitz]

Some Norman Rockwell.

Close up of The Young Lady with a Shiner

 

[rocketeer]

For me it's Picasso. When arguing about his style with those that dismiss it as amateurish I say "Look at the painting, then look at the person its meant to represent" They usually answer that the painting does look like that person.
My favourite is his painting of the German bombing of the Basque town of Guernica
Picasso was also a great sculptor, how many other artistes could claim more than 1 direction.
What do members think of the modern so called artistes such as Tracy Emin and Damien Hurst? Will Hursts cow or shark or whatever be viewed and loved as much as a classic Gainsborough, Constable or even Picasso? Dont get me started on Tracy Emin, who in my opinion and it is only my opinion, is a total waste of media space who has conned the press with piles of rubbish? I think if her dog pooped on the pavement she would have the press describe it as an assessment of the world today. If Picasso had knocked over his dustbin(trashcan) would that have been considered art?
J
PS I see no one has even mentioned Vargas or Petty.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Maybe a little to obvious for the lounge but I always liked Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks"

Nighthawks was re-created in this scene from Pennies From Heaven

 

[TamJamB]

vitanola, I hope you don't mind that I registered here to speak with you about Paul Doering. He was my great-grandfather and my family is always on the lookout for his works. He was not actually Dutch, although that is frequently reported on the internet. He was actually born in Germany and was apprenticed at the Meissen china factory in Dresden. We own a small watercolor which he painted while in Dresden -- the family story is that it was his 'final exam' before leaving his apprenticeship. It's a cool little painting of a cherub riding on a carrot, believe it or not. Anyway, he married a fellow apprentice there and they came to the US in the 1880s. Daddy Paul (as he was known to my mother) started his US career as an instructor at the Art Institute of Cincinnati, then did a lot of traveling before coming to California in the early 1900s. He did a lot of portraits -- his obituary mentioned portraits of former US President Benjamin Harrison and former confederate President . He also did a lovely watercolor portrait of actor Richard Bennett (father of Constance & Joan).

His son, my grandfather, married and had children very late -- he was in his 50s when my mother was born. My mom was 9 or 10 when Daddy Paul died and we only ended up with a couple of paintings -- the watercolor I mentioned before, plus the Bennett portrait (which I lost track of after the death of my uncle, unfortunately -- I'd love to have that one back!), and an oil of Laguna Beach. We've managed to pick up a few more pieces in the last few years, thanks to the internet. I'd love to see some photos of your other Paul Doering works, if you wouldn't mind.

 

[davidraphael]

Where does one start?
These are the 1st few that popped into my mind. I like most of the works of any of these artists.

 

[bulldog1935]

Van Gough, Starry Night on the Rhone is my wallpaper on my office computer

I'm a fan of Juan Gris - Open Window

 

[penates]

An Arbor by Byun Shi Ji.

The Emerald by Alphonse Mucha.

I am not sure of the artist, but I like this advert for absinthe.

 

[Captain Lex]

I'm quite partial to surrealism, and while the genre owes a debt of course to Salvador Dali, my hat is off to Rene Magritte, whose work is always charming, perplexing, and generally far subtler than Dali's. Exemplified best, perhaps by Galconde:

 

[bulldog1935]

...
The Emerald by Alphonse Mucha.

...

Years ago in Austin, the great room in our home was decorated with Mucha Times of Day panneau.

(impossible to find one on line with good colors)
The room had 18' ceiling and the east windows were 12' tall, and the sunlight beautifully marched through these as the day waxed and waned.