Arts and crafts

I forgot about 4 in the basement. 😄

I can't imagine painting anything taller than me! Well, in my case it would be drawing. I think something of that scale would take me an age to complete.


I get what you mean. I like light and plain walls because we had garish patterned wallpaper and carpets which I couldn't stand when I was growing up. I felt like everything clashed badly in our house and I found it quite depressing. I do have many paintings on the wall in my home now though and a lot of mirrors.


I'm not far behind you Lenka. Other than what I learned in art classes at school and from reading books on art, I know little about any techniques. I just know what I like when I see it.

I am one of those people that likes to see real talent when I look at a painting. Abstract art leaves me cold. If it looks like a 5 year old child could have painted it, I'm not interested.


Moroccan in mine :)


I'm constantly amazed by the number of people that love Ikea!! One opened not far from me about 20 years ago. I went when it first opened, saw nothing I liked and haven't been back since.

Guess I must be the odd one out.

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There was another one, a bouquet of flowers, a painting by Heta Kordt. Cheerful, colorful. The artist must have been going through hard times and the "cheerful" paintings helped her survive.

People here mostly like representative art, even photo realism. This should fit well.

David Inshaw (born 1943)
The Raven 1971

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I like the sound of the first part (big white walls, high ceilings), but let's not go too far with that lack of paintings ;) I like paintings, drawings, posters, etc. on the walls and an occasional shelf here and there - just in moderation :)


That's amazing! :D If I were to visit you, you'd have me staring at your walls ;D Btw, who's buying them? You or your wife? :)


For me too - I paint/draw slowly (unless I'm pressed with time, but then I'm usually not entirely happy with the result). I didn't realise how big her paintings are until I saw that photo! I wonder how long does it take her to paint one, especially considering how detailed they are.


I see you, me and jon357 have been traumatised by the decor of our childhood homes ;D

Me too! :D I like gold on stuff and even in paintings and drawings, so I try to add some golden accents here and there to those neutral colours that I like in interiors in order to liven them up a little, like a white mug with golden spots, etc.


I actually like those, they look pretty (especially if they're golden :)).


That's pretty cool and clever + decorative - I can easily see it hanging on a wall in a minimalist (but not only) flat/house :)

Me too.


It's pretty much the same for me, although as I wrote earlier I do think some abstract art do fit certain interiors. I myself wouldn't mind some pretty abstract art on my walls - purely for decorative purposes though :)


That could be the case, but not necessarily - many people simply like painting colourful, cheerful stuff :)


I wouldn't know, since we don't have Ikea in Kielce ;) Until not long ago you couldn't even order anything online from Ikea to our city - I guess we were too far away from civilisation ;D They finally opened up some storehouse in the vicinity of Kielce and you can order their stuff on the internet and pick it up over there.

@Feniks, what type of interiors do you like, btw?


Something of this kind, for example:

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Actually, both. But in total it's only 1 or 2 per year. The last one in spring this year from Mario Hennings, a seaside landscape.

@Alien, you're both good people then - I salute you! :D 👍

The problem is not to buy, the problem is to find the right place in the house to properly expose the painting. Each one presents itself differently depending on the place and surroundings.

An age old question, but one key difference is that illustrators are adding to the creative output of the writer. It's about the book, usually. Having said that, some of the best illustrator's work is almost as big an attraction as the book it's illustrating.

Perhaps a film about a famous painting would be illustrating that too.

Here's a couple of famous ones, by Arthur Rackham. Both 1920s and illustrating different books.

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I haven't found anything that I like yet......

I'm talking about abstract art like this by American artist Cy Twombly:

gagosian.com/exhibitions/2005/cy-twombly-bacchus/

Valued between 35 and 45 million dollars. For the life of me I cannot understand why and I would defy anyone on this forum to say it shows talent in any way whatsoever. I actually think that works like this are an insult to truly talented artists.


Definitely plain walls. Not white for me though, I think it can look too clinical, almost hospital like. I like pale colours, and like Alien, I have lots of paintings on my walls. More than him actually!

I loathe carpets and prefer wooden floors and furniture with brightly coloured rugs. Not dark wood though. Probably the result of growing up with things like sideboards and china cabinets :(


I really was traumatised by it!! When you've had to put up with an orange vinyl sofa followed by an extremely uncomfortable cottage suite to go with the brightly patterned wallpaper and hideously patterned carpets you will understand my pain ;D


I like those illustrations. Red riding hood for the 3rd one, not sure about the others.

I'm with you. I have at least a few dozen pieces of art like that in my house. They stored in a plastic bin where I keep all of the painting my kids did when they were two.

I'm redoing my kitchen--white walls--so let me remove you from the invite list. :D

Remember that Twombly is gallery art; something intended to be viewed in a large dedicated space. I like some of his stuff, the more richly coloured rather than the monochrome art. It has a a unique visual language that invites personal interpretation. It captures feelings through texture and use of colour. It does work better if the viewer gets his references to mythology and literature.

Think about Pollock's splatter paintings (at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, you can see them how he intended them to be displayed. I went there to see their Fernand Leger paintings but spent much of the time just staring at the Pollock works. They have a special effect when you observe them. Interestingly, it's almost impossible to make a painting in that style and pass it off as his.

From his Lepanto cycle:

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I agree with this. His work is much better in person than a image printed in some book or webpage. There's detail to discover when viewed in person.

The Lepanto thing looks not bad, but those red circles...looks like two year old graffiti. Unlike Pollock, no detail to discover. The red circle comes across as what I call esoteric statement art. The artists is making a statement but its so esoteric and self absorbed only the artist and a few others get the statement. There's an elitism in it that I find repulsive.

Exactly, there's no comparison. What works in a large gallery doesn't necessarily work on a living room wall or a wikipedia page and isn't of course meant to.


That's pretty well the opposite of what it is; his work, especially the Lepanto Cycle is rich in context, even the bleaker images in the series. It does help to know the literary and historical illusions he's making, and of course it works on the emotions as it's meant to.


By that logic, you could only have art, literature, music, film that is accessible to the least educated. There is mass market output, even a huge amount of it, and there is more challenging output. Life would be poorer if all film was Netflix pap and no Alain Resnais or Terence Davies at all.

Those who find challenging cultural output "repulsive" can always look at Maxfield Parrish or watch M jak Milosc They are both good in their own way.

That's not the logic though. It's not a matter of challenge, but a matter of engagement. You mention knowing literary and historical allusions, what such allusions are there in the Red Circles? I can see the Lepanto, but what about the Red Circles? TS Eliot said to fully understand his poetry you needed to read and experienced everything he has read and experienced. Who in the hell has done that? Yet, his very challenging work allows the consumer of his work to enter into it and engage it. I might not get every allusion but his art is open. The Red Circles isn't open, IMO, ergo it's esoteric. Repulsive is too strong of a word: unappealing, withdrawn are better.

The same thing; art can be engaging and challenging. It can also be very obviously unpleasant as much even most german expressionism is meant to be,


If you need to ask, it's not for you. Why not just look at it in the gallery. If it moves you, fine; if it doesn't, move yourself to the next painting.


Yet it appeals to some, even many. And goes over the head of others.

I don't see anything unique in this style. As AntV wrote - it looks like something scribbled by a two-year-old...


Pretty much any art invites that. Or rather - you can invent any meaning you wish behind any piece of art, no matter how nonsensical and wild...


No more than scribbles of a two-year-old... Actually, scribbles of a two-year-old invoke more emotion in me - at least I think that it's cute, but in case of an adult painter it's just "Meh..."

I'm not writing this to be mean - it's just how I feel about such art. My little niece draws better than this Twombly guy lol There's just nothing special about his art, besides looking like kid's drawings - I don't know, maybe it was a novelty during his times or something... There's nothing clever about his art, it doesn't make me think or feel anything. It's just scribbles. Uninteresting scribbles. Unclever scribbles. Meaningless scribbles. There is abstract art that clearly couldn't be made by a kid - I appreciate and respect such art more than the Twombly type stuff.

Yet critics value his work hugely. You may feel differently if you saw it presented in a gallery rather than online.


So many would disagree. Then again, there are people who say that Last Year in Marienbad is just people walking around slowly or that Tracy Emin's bed is just a mucky bed.

Do you like Yves Klein?

Me neither, but I can think of at least three basic reasons for this:

1. He took part in creating new art style/movement - the New York school of abstract expressionism. Once you create something new that hasn't been done before in art (at least by adult painters lol) you automatically get a place in the pantheon of "great artists" and you're put in the history of art textbooks. That's enough for your art to be "important" and thus - expensive*, no matter how fugly and stupid it is ;)

2. He's dead. Once the artist dies his works go up in value.

3. *And if your art is important enough to be expensive then it means it's going to be valued by collectors. From what I've managed to gather rich people often treat art as investment. Art usually goes up in value with time, so that's a good long-term investment. You don't have to like the art you're buying - what's important is that you know you will sell it with profit later on.


For me personally it doesn't depend on the colour of walls, but on the interior design overall. You can make an interior with white walls look clinical or simply "cold" and empty, or warm and cozy.

Btw, I associate the green colour with hospitals, because that's often the colour of walls in Polish hospitals and schools... It's usually the bottom half of the walls painted green and the other half with lighter colour... I hate it...


Oh, I understand it perfectly, trust me ;D When we moved to another place my parents took that dark, patterned carpet with us and they still have it in the living room after all those years ;/ It's so big it covers the whole floor in the room and even though my mother has asthma she didn't want to get rid of it, because "carpets are expensive"... *sigh* Go figure... 🤷


Please, tell me more :D (I'm interested in interior design and so I like to know what people do with their places :))

We had carpet tiles. As far as I know, Poland was spared that horror.


Cream gloss paint in ours. If I see that on a wall, it just feels like an old fashioned dentists.

No problem, if it's made of wool maybe moths will eat it.

Wassily Kandinsky, Free Curve to the Point, 1925

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I'll send you a picture when I'm finished-and only God knows when that will be.

Here's a long, thorough article explaining this phenomenon in detail:

myartbroker.com/investing/articles/why-do-billionaires-invest-in-art

Here's an important fragment, I think:

"To maximise the value of their art collections, billionaires employ various strategies and tactics, such as buying artworks by emerging artists, leveraging their influence to create demand for certain artists, and investing in art-related businesses.

One such tactic is to buy works by emerging artists with potential for growth in value. For example, billionaire hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen invested in emerging artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jeff Koons, whose works have seen significant appreciation over time. Cohen was revealed to be the mystery buyer of Koons Rabbit selling for over half a billion dollars."

So it looks like we "owe" all that crappy art in art
galleries to billionares?:

"When it comes to the types of art that billionaire collectors invest in, blue chip and Contemporary Art tend to be the most popular choices. Blue chip art refers to works by well-established artists with a proven track record of high demand and strong market performance, regardless of general economic performance. These pieces are often considered safer investments due to their consistent market value and appreciation potential.

Contemporary pieces allow collectors to participate in the ongoing cultural conversation, shaping the narrative of the art world in real time. contemporary art is highly collectible and rare, with many works being one-of-a-kind or limited editions. This exclusivity creates a sense of luxury and prestige, appealing to the wealthy's desire for uniqueness and status. It's high-risk, high-reward status makes it an attractive choice for investors looking to diversify their portfolio."


Thanks! :)


Why is that? Are you doing it by yourself?

My parents don't have clothes moths and that carpet seems to be indestructible - I'm afraid it will outlive all of us ;O lol


Yup, I didn't even know such a thing existed...

Yes and I pretty much completely gutted half my house from ceiling to floor.