Liz Tyner
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Quirks and Their Artists

5/31/2015

 
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Deciding to write about quirky artists and then looking up Salvador Dali and Vincent Van Gogh is not the way to begin. Their behavior went past what I consider quirks.

Van Gogh was ill beyond the cures available at the time and had to be under medical care at one point. Yet, he created a tremendous amount of paintings. He died from a gunshot wound before the age of forty.

Dali may have exploited his own eccentricities and used them as a way to gather attention for his art. Separating the truth from the fiction of his life might be an impossible task. If it's all truth, then I don't know if art is worth it.

 After researching these artists, I needed to read something more positive. I had to look up Norman Rockwell. Rockwell painted life inspired scenes, and apparently lived an ordinary existence.

Perhaps he painted from his imagination just as much as Dali and Van Gogh, but art should have room for optimism too.


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That Da Vinci Man

5/24/2015

 
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 Leonardo Da Vinci is regarded as a genius. But just like the rest of us, he had his share of disappointments.

He'd planned a great statue of a horse, completed the mock up, but then the supply of bronze he'd planned to use was melted into armaments.

Preparations he'd done on a wall for an artistic creation washed away in a rain, and he never returned to the painting.

Even in his lifetime, one of his best works, The Last Supper, had started deteriorating. He'd chosen materials which worked better with his method of creation than ones which were more stable over time. Even if he knew this would happen, I'm sure he would have continued exactly as he did.

None of his masterpieces interest me as much as his sketches of imperfect faces, and the ones he'd exaggerated. (At least, I think they were exaggerated.) 

His art and intellect caused him to have genius status. But when I discovered his handwriting style, it added a level of artistic flair. He sometimes wrote backwards, from right to left. This quirk dramatically increased his status on my list of "famous people from the past I'd like to have dinner with." 



One Biography at a Time

5/16/2015

 
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Pick a famous person of the past, and most likely there's a biography about them.

When I finished reading the biography of Alexander Hamilton, I had to stop and think about him. Did I dislike the man because he'd hoped for war so he could further his career, or did I admire him for the meticulous records he kept and his efforts to make the USA financially secure?  Days, weeks and now even years later, I'm still thinking about his mistakes, successes and his death caused by a duel.

Taking a person's entire world and condensing it into a book, adding the filter of history, the author's perceptions and then stirring in the viewpoints of others can make it hard for a reader to get a true story of the subject. Reading two biographies of the same person, back-to-back, helps decipher the facts. One book might seem laundered and the other embellished.

When reading The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte by Daphne du Maurier, I was impressed with the book. But I was so appalled by Bronte that I had to get the volume out of my house before I even finished it. The author did such a good job of making Bronte come alive, and did so in such a straightforward manner, that I could feel the pain he caused to others. This is the only book I've ever read that was so good I couldn't finish it. 


The Art of Portraits

5/2/2015

 
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In researching, I read about a historical figure who wanted his portrait done blemishes and all.  Until then, when I'd looked at paintings from the past I'd assumed they were exact portrayals of the subject.

Would you patron an artist who didn't make you look your best? Personally, I'd want my money's worth.

A skilled artist could remove quite a lot of imperfections.

The portrait of the younger Lord Byron, painted by Elisabeth Vigee-Le Brun, may be an instance where the artist changed her subject a bit. However, the early picture of the poet is not an example of the artist's best work either.

Vigee-Le Brun was extremely skilled and prolific, however. She was also a favorite of Marie Antionette and did many portraits of her.

http://www.biography.com/people/elisabeth-vig%C3%A9e-le-brun-37280


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