 My Favourite Picture Posted by Anna Sugden Jun 22 2012, 1:32 am Have you ever had that moment when you see a picture and it calls out to you? Really speaks to you. I’ve never been a great one for paintings. Not that I don’t like paintings, but I’ve been inspired other things. As a student, I was more likely to have black and white photos of film stars on my wall, than prints of famous art. A moody shot of a smoking Marlene Dietrich or a classic shot of Audrey Hepburn at her most elegant. My first experience of art speaking to me was when I visited the Tate Gallery in London, on a school trip, and saw my first Dali. It was an painting of the Crucifixion from above and was so striking I stood staring at it for hours. It was one of those paintings that the more you looked at it, the more you saw. Something true of most Dali paintings and indeed of the best Surrealists.
What is your favourite painting? How does it speak to you? TweetPosted in Anna Sugden, art, Atsuko Okamoto, Hirschfeld, Mark Keller, paintings, Salvador Dali Comments66 thoughts on “My Favourite Picture” |
  
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I have a little oil painting of a sandy cove on the Sunshine Coast, QLD. My parents bought it for me years ago.
My parents have lived up on the coast for many years & we have been going on holidays there for decades, before the rest of the world found it even.
The painting represents all that is good in the world.
Mary
I hope the GR has been behaving while I was away
Have Fun
with him
Helen
Helen, are you back? How was the cruise?
Nancy and Anna
The cruise was fantastic even though we ran into some really rough seas and weather and missed out on 4 of the ports we were suposed to go to I had a ball it really is great getting waited on LOL I have put some pictures up on facebook
Have Fun
Helen
Welcome back Helen!
So glad you had a great time!
Welcome back, Helen! How was your cruise?
Mary, congrats on nabbing the GR today!
Mary, congrats on nabbing the rooster!
That painting sounds wonderful. I love the ocean.
That painting sounds lovely, Mary. It certainly is a gorgeous part of the country – we really enjoyed our visit there last year.
Mary, what a lovely description of your favourite painting!
Hi Anna,
Was bummed that neither of our teams won the Cup. I have so many favorites. I love Titian’s Man with a Glove, Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus just for the sheer beauty of it. I also love Mary Cassatt’s paintings depicting mother and child.
Jane, I don’t know why my reply didn’t nest. :-/ It’s #8 below. Sorry!
We gave it a good shot, didn’t we, Jane? Roll on October! I’m determined to get over to see a game this season.
You’ve picked some great paintings, Jane. Man with a Glove really struck a chord.
Anna
I don’t have a favourite painting but I do like paintings of scenery whether it be coundty cottages or seaside scences I can stand and look at them for ages thinking I am there LOL
Have Fun
Helen
I like landscapes with castles in them.
Some paintings of scenery are breath-taking and really make you want to step inside them, Helen.
Hi Anna!
Most of the paintings hanging on our walls are paintings I’ve done – LOL. For the most part, I’m too cheap to actually pay for art, so I had to paint myself – but these aren’t bad. If nothing else, they’re personal and make good heirlooms. Actually I miss painting. Everytime I think of it, I think I’d be better off working on the manuscript. I’ll have to try to find a balance.
I do have a print of Nolde’s Sunflowers before the Windstorm. The painting has political meanings connected with Hitler and bending before the storm – but I love the contrast of the yellows and oranges in front of the purples in the sky. I love color. Bright color. I love Van Gough for his bold brush strokes and his use of color. Can’t think of the name of his painting – but I have a print in my office of the one of a restaurant at night where the bright yellows carve an oasis out of the blues of the evening. Bright color and Contrasts.
Love the look of Afterjam. It has a New Orleans sort of feel.
Donna, I didn’t know you painted! How cool! If you miss it, you should definitely work time for that into your day.
How wonderful that you have a second creative string to your bow, Donna. I admire anyone who can paint, as I’m hopeless!
I think you’re talking about Starry Night by VG. The Nolde painting is indeed striking. I love colour too – as you’ll see when you come and visit.
Anna, I am much the same with paintings. I know what I like when I see it. This was brought home to me last when when my daughter and I were at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. I have been there several times before and each time I realize I am not a great appreciator of art, just someone who likes what she likes.
I did note on this trip, however, that I’m a great fan of Georges Seurat. I used to think I was a Monet lover, but discovered a few paintings I thought must be his were really by Seurat (that’s how little I know about art).
My young imagination, though, was completely captured by the work of the Brothers Hildebrandt (Greg and Tim), twins who did lots of sci-fic and fantasy artwork. They did lots of paintings of scenes from Tolkein and I still have a calendar featuring their Lord of the Rings art from 1978. I just saw on an art gallery website that the acrylic painting of the cover for the calendar is selling for $50,000. I loved this one ‘Gift of Galadriel’ from the 1977 calendar: http://www.spiderwebart.com/enlarge.asp?image=103068B.jpg. Of course, our visions of LOTR have been altered now that we have the spectacular movies, but these were the images I carried in my head for decades!
Caren, I had that Hildebrandt calendar. Those were truly gorgeous illustrations.
I think the Hildebrandts also did the original poster for Star Wars.
Ah yes, the Hildebrandts! Some wonderful art, Caren. I remember the LOTR calendars, even though I wasn’t a big fan of LOTR, it was hard not to appreciate their visions.
Anna, that is a very cool painting! Looking at it is like stepping into a story midway.
I’m trying to think of one I could call my favorite. I tend to like the Impressionists, but I also like realism as well as the fanciful art of Maxfield Parrish. I love the way Norman Rockwell used light.
Teaching the 1920s gave me an appreciation for Parrish and for Georgia O’Keeffe. I’m not much for black and white photos, but I like those of Ansel Adams, who was also working in the ’20s. I love the illustrations of N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle.
I like El Greco’s View of Toledo (I think that’s what it’s called) because it’s very moody. My favorite Van Gogh is Starry Night, as I imagine it is for a lot of people. The Wyeth of a yellow lab lying on a bed could hang in my house, seeing as we had a wonderful yellow lab.
If I could pick just one famous painting to own, it would probably be Monet’s Water Lilies. I just like it a lot. Alas, but MOMA beat me to it!
That’s exactly how I felt, Nancy! It’s even more so in real life. How Keller manages to get so much emotion into a man’s shadow is amazing. I can look at it at different times and see different things.
Ansel Adams’ photos are incredible – I think they inspire you to go to the places to see the wonders for yourself.
Nancy, those Ansell Adams photos are breahtaking, aren’t they? And I’m with you on the view of Toledo. There was a faded print of that on my grade 12 classroom wall and even in a bad reproduction, that picture is powerful.
What is your favourite painting? How does it speak to you?
I know this sounds really morbid but ‘Starry Night’ by Vincent Van Gogh is one painting that I can really get into. It’s his last painting he ever did before he shot himself in the chest…
Now, it’s full of messages about his depression and how much he loved the night sky… but how he put it all together is just brilliant. It’s something I haven’t been able to do and have been trying to do with acrylics unsuccessfully. But one day I will!
Mozette, I didn’t know Starry Night was van Gogh’s last work. I wonder if that’s what inspired Don MacLean to write a song (I can’t remember if the title is Vincent–I think it is–or Starry Night) about it.
Actually, it was the painting which inspired Don MacLean to write ‘Starry, Starry Night’ and ‘Vincent’. If you listen to the lyrics carefully they are about Vincent’s struggle with his Epilepsy and his problems of how people thought he was insane when he wasn’t. And how it wasn’t until over a century later, he was seen as a genius; until it was far too late.
This is why I love this work. I’m Epileptic and I paint and I can see how much art meant to him. It’s something that drives me to work as hard on my work as he did on his.
Now you know how we writers feel, Mozette. Inspired by such great authors and with a vision of our own, yet striving always to achieve what we want.
How wonderful that VG inspired you so much. We’re off to Amsterdam shortly and enjoy going to the VG museum there.
Be prepared to be overwhelmed and amazed, Anna! I spent an entire day in the Van Gogh Museum when I visited Amsterdam. It was one of the most awe-inspiring and humbling experiences of my life.
We’ve been before, Louisa! Hubby is a fan, though I’m not really into VG – except from some of his earlier work (ducking). The wonderful thing for me was seeing that he’s more than just the popular paintings we associate with him. His painting of a pair of old boots is fabulous!
Jane, I learned about Mary Cassatt while researching Maxfield Parrish. Cassatt was truly a woman ahead of her time, painting when that field, like so many others, was seen as the province of men. I like her work.
Hi Anna,
you kno I dont have a fav painting, maybe I need to go somewhere to see real art.
Perhaps my question should have been broader, Dina, and covered pictures and other art as well as paintings. Has there been anything that speaks to you and you’d love to have it on your wall?
no, not really,
I’m intrigued. So, what do you have on your walls?
My taste in art is as eclectic as my taste in books. I love Mary Cassatt’s paintings of ordinary moments in the lives of women and children. “Children Playing on a Beach” is probably my favorite. I also like primitive or naive art. I really enjoy the humor and romance of Jan Balet’s work. I can’t forget paintings of women reading. I have a huge collection that I use as wallpaper on my computer.
And I love illustrations for children’s books from Jesse Wilcox Smith’s illustrations for Little Women and Water Babies to the wonderful quilts Anna Grossnickle Hines did for her books. But the art that hangs on my walls tends to be more personal and less expensive, at least in dollar value: a painting by a former student, a quilt made by a group of good friends, photographs from a friend who is a professional photographer, and materpieces by the grands–all gifts and thus dear.
Children Playing on a Beach is my favourite Mary Cassatt, Janga. Like my kids in deckchairs – it is so heart-warming. I had to Google Jan Balet – they are fun and romantic. I can see why you like them.
My walls are covered with personal things too. In fact, my whole office is filled with trinkets and mementoes and bits and pieces – all of which make me smile.
I don’t have a specific painting I like most, but there are certain artists. I’m a fan of western landscapes by people like Thomas Moran (the painter of Yellowstone), Albert Bierstadt, and Frederic Remington (known for his depictions of cowboys, Native Americans and the U.S. Cavalry in the Old West.
I also love a lot of fantasy art, some manga stuff, and some of the work on deviantArt is amazing.
I Googled the artists you mentioned, Trish – very striking art! Frederic Remington’s work reminds me of a painting I saw years ago – another of those that spoke to me. It was at a wedding and on the wall of the reception room, there was a painting of three horsemen/tribesmen in the dessert. I don’t know who it was by, but it was awesome!
There are a lot of wonderful contemporary western artists too. Several years ago, I got to browse the galleries at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City while the prestigious Prix de West western art show.
I remembered another artist’s work I really like, someone I actually interviewed and wrote an article about. David Wright is a wonderful artists who has done a lot of paintings of Native Americans and westward expansive. Wes Studi, who played Magua in Last of the Mohicans, sat for him in native attire. Very striking painting, it’s called Algonquin. And a large painting of Daniel Boone leading settlers through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky is on display at the visitors center at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.
Sorry – lost me for a moment there with Wes Studi – isn’t he yummy? Ah yes, have seen a few David Wrights – very nice!
What fun, Anna! Love seeing your favorite paintings *g*
I’m afraid I don’t know much about art but there is one painting that I knew I had to have and that’s Getting Ready for a Game by Carl Larsson. It shows his wife and two daughters in the dining room. I loved it from the moment I first saw it and now it hangs in my kitchen
The daughters remind me of my own girls.
I”m learning about so many different artists today! What lovely work Carl Larsson does – I can see why you like ‘Getting Ready for a Game’, Beth – it’s gorgeous!
I love the work of Van Gogh – Starry Night, of course and the Van Gogh Museum poster I bought when I visited there has a huge image of Van Gogh’s Irises on it. LOVE the color in that painting.
I am also fond of the work of Sir Edwin Landseer, especially one entitled The Old Shepherd’s Chief Mourner. There is something so poignant and heart-breaking about this painting.
For sheer grandeur I love Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. There is so much going on in the painting and it is so large. I am amazed at the talent and vision it took to bring the entire image to life. Saw it in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and I’ve never forgotten it.
I love Lawrence’s portraits and Stubbs portraits of horses. And I must confess I love Cruikshank’s caricatures. They make me smile!
Louisa, I think my favourite Rembrandt is the Jewish Wedding. It doesn’t come across particularly well in reproductions but it’s incredibly tender and moving when you see it for real (it’s in the Rijksmuseum near The Night Watch). Made me want to cry.
Actually I just looked it up – it’s actually the Jewish Bride. Here’s a link:
http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/images/aria/sk/org/sk-c-216.org?aria/maxwidth_288
I remember that painting, La Divina Campbell. It is so poignant and is quintessential Rembrandt. Gorgeous.
I visited the Rembrandt House while I was there and saw some incredible sketches he made of seashells. They truly are some of my favorites of his work because they are so simple and yet so intricately beautiful.
There is indeed something about Rembrandt that tugs at you, Louisa – more so in real life than in reproductions. Really must make it to the Rijksmuseum – it’s always jam-packed with long queues whenever we’re in Amsterdam, so we give it a miss.
Oh yes, the Cruikshank caricatures are fab!
I need a larger house for the the artwork that we have. It started that when my husband and I traveled we sometimes found a painting from that country or state. We have one from our trip to Paris that we saw the artist painting it. Some others were from Hawaii, New Orleans, Arizona etc. We also got paintings from my inlaws because they traveled quite a bit and when they passed we iinherited their paintings. And my daughter and her boyfriend are artists and we have some of their pieces. I love being surrounded by paintings and books
How lovely, Catslady, that you have so many wonderful pieces that reflect so many happy memories and experiences.
I know what you mean about needing more walls – we ran out of those a while back and are having to rotate things otherwise some stuff sits in the loft!
Ooooh, I like the red building front in “Afterjam”…and the title of the painting!
My favourite painting is Edmund Blair Leighton’s “The Accolade”. I love the subject matter as well as colours and the use of lighting in the painting. When I’m not admiring it as a whole, I like to try to make out the suggested patterns in the tapestry, on the throne and in the folds of the dress as well as scrutinising the chain mail to see where he actually painted all the rings in the mail and where he got lazy and only made it look like they were all attached…ha! Oh, and I like the boy peeking over the old man’s shoulder and the woman(?) in the back who isn’t really watching the main event. I also really love(though to a slightly lesser extent) Leighton’s “The King and the Beggar-maid”(the colours are so rich and the subject matter totally makes the little girl fairy tale fan in me squee…and I love the guy off to the side who doesn’t seem too pleased with what he’s seeing) and “Stitching the Standard”(for the lines, simplicity and the gorgeous punch of colour).
Some other paintings that I’m fond of are John William Waterhouse’s “Windflowers” and “I am half-sick of shadows, said The Lady of Shalott” and for some more contemporary works, the wraparound painting Keith Parkinson did for the cover of Kristen Britain’s Green Rider, the one Luis Royo did for Julie E. Czerneda’s Survival and pretty much a whole whackload of Michael Whelan’s paintings.
Oh oh oh and though I don’t actually like it as a whole, the details of Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych, “The Garden of Earthly Delights” always makes me laugh out loud…quite a bit….LOL!
I’m LOL because I thought you were talking about the Michael Connelly character. Not being art-wise, I had to look up what you were talking about!
That’s a great painting, Pissenlit. I think that’s what I mean by speaking to me – I love when you look at a painting and see more and more in it. The painting draws you in because you want to know about the boy and woman and …
I’ve had fun Googling those artists and paintings – the Mike Whelan stuff is fabulous!
I know exactly what you’re talking about, Anna. It happened to me over 20 years ago when I was visiting the art museum in Skagen, Denmark. There was a painting there that captured my interest right away and really think I stood in front of it for 15 minutes…and kept returning to look at it. The original is very big; I can’t remember the actual size, but I think it must have been at least 5′ x 4′ o maybe even larger. It’s a picture of a girl, aged 8 or so, dressed all in blue velvet from her little hat to her coat. I bought a print of it, brought it home, had it matted in blue velvet, and waited until I found an antiquish-looking frame (bronzed roses) to place it in.
My other favorite painting is one that my mother painted of an early 1900′s farm kitchen table with a basket of eggs, a kerosene lamp, and a teacup/saucer with lace curtains adorning an open window in the background that looks out into the farmyard. I love all of my mother’s paintings, but that’s my fave.
I’m not sure why the girl in blue “called” to me. She’s not really smiling, but isn’t unhappy; just captured my heart. Of course, my mother’s paintings are dear to my heart because, not only are they good, but my mother painted them and several of them were painted just for me.
How lovely, Deb. It made me smile to hear about how much those paintings spoke to you. Your mother’s painting sounded particularly pretty – if only there was a way we could share the images!
I don’t actually have favorite paintings so much, though I have a few that I’ve done that I do like. I also have favorite photographs–one in particular is of Marilyn Monroe–it’s one where she was sitting with that white frilly dress up against her because it wouldn’t fit. Her eyes are so blue in that photo, and I think you can see so much of her pain and loneliness if you look deeply enough, though that may just be what I’m reading into it.
Most of my favorite photos are ones either I or Steve have taken.
I do have a thing for Monet–certain of his paintings leave me speechless. One in particular was of a storm swollen river in Paris, with the driving rain and blowing trees. I think it’s the movement in the painting that gets to me. The first time I saw it in person I actually cried. And I don’t really do that about art much.
That’s like me, Cassondra. There are some amazing photos of Audrey Hepburn and Katherine Hepburn at different points of their lives which reflect some of what was happening to them. There is a fantastic book of 100 photographs of Audrey that I got for Christmas which has some truly haunting photos of her.
Anna, what a lovely post and on a subject dear to my heart. I love art – that Audrey Hepburn is fantastic, isn’t it? So clever! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s responses. One of the lovely things about art is that you can view something completely differently if you talk to someone about how the piece looks through their eyes. Favourite? Oh, too hard! I absolutely love Rembrandt and Klimt and the late medieval stuff from the Low Countries. I could go on for hours but I’ll spare you all!
I adore Hirschfelds, Anna. I also have one of Bringing Up Baby which is wonderful.
You’re so right, talking with others about how they view a painting or photo or any piece of art is so interesting and can change your perspective.
Love that Mark Keller painting, Anna; it’s so evocative. Interesting post. Art is such a personal thing, isn’t it? I go through phases, loved the Impressionists for a long time, then Van Gogh. Now I find myself drawn to anything with vibrant colors.
Thanks, Jo – glad the Keller appealed to you, Jo. There are quite a few of his paintings that don’t do anything for me – they tend to be the ones of people dancing – but there are also a good number which have elements that draw you in and want questions answered! There is another one, I think it’s called The Teacher that I love.
Anna, I can see the appeal of your Mark Keller painting.
I’m not sure I’ve got an absolute favourite but my parents have an oil painting they bought years ago, of a small, old homestead with a rusty iron roof, somewhere up the north coast. There are mountains in the background and tall cabbage tree palms and it looks like the summers of my childhood, exploring out of the way places with them. Very, very evocative.
Thanks, Annie – glad it spoke to you too.
Your parents’ painting sounds wonderful. I can hear in your post how it warms your heart!