Who is your favourite artist and why.
I know it's a bit of a cliche in art circles, but mine has got to be John Constable.
His landscape art to me is of romance as well as story telling....I love it.
PS:~
I forgot to say,I like his so much because he is so calm and still, something we lack in the 21stC.
They may not appeal to you if you like Constable,as Constable is an outdoor artist,and Chardin is mostly an indoor one.
I also thought you mike like to see this:~
http://www.findagrave...cgi?page=gr&GRid=5392
Hmm...I love Constable too.....and the French Impressionists (The only thing French I like!) Turner is another fav of mine - i love his Fighting Temeraire....and some of the Pre-Raphaelite painters like DG Rosetti Millais and Holman Hunt....
I don't have a favourite artist, but my favourite painting is the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba by Claude Lorraine, which you can see for free at the National Gallery. I sometimes pop in, make my way to the room it's in (a tiny connecting room with some good Turners, too), stare at it for 5 minutes or so in awe, then leave.
for all those that have said constable, I am lucky enough to live a few miles from John constables house and therefore the area that he painted, it a absolutely lovely area and a very relaxing place to take a walk or hire a boat and play about on the river for a bit :)
Some of it still looks remarkably similar these days to the pictures, here's the hay wain as it looks today.
There's a note on the wall in that room which says that Turner specifically requested those pictures be placed together (I think as a condition of his bequeathment) ...
Ellipsis,
This is very interesting page about Turner,especially his mistress Mrs Sophia Booth(widow) who looked after him for much of his life.However,Turner kept her so secretly hidden from his friends, and colleagues that it came as quite a shock for them to discover her when he died!especially given the fact that their house was only about six or so away fromTurner's studio.
http://www.infobritai...graphy_And_Visits.htm
He also had a relationship with Sarah Danby (nee Goose) who was 15 years older than him,and by whom he had two daughters.Sarah died in 1861 at the age of 101!
See here:~
http://ksimmon.saskte...net/PS04/PS04_090.HTM
How did he get time for all those paintings!?
I like a picture that portrays art. I couldn't paint the Haywain or the Mona Lisa or Venus rising. But I think I could of had a crack at Pontilisim or Gurnica.