Arts and crafts

Perfect image for a Christmas card :) Not that kitsch really. Quite beautifully rendered.

The Halifax one is really striking and evocative.

My immediate thought is of 'Little Women', although Loiusa May Alcott probably didn't have women that looked like that in mind.


Something about this appeals to me although my first thought was 'dark satanic mills'.

Laurie was missing in the pic. Disregarding him by Atch was unfair.
:):):)

An interesting one. By an American artist that I wasn't familiar with until today.

Benjamin Britt (1923 - 1996) - Abstract (Untitled), c. 1950s, oil on Masonite,

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A print of this one is going back on my wall as soon as the decorators finish this week.

Robin Hood's Bay, Albert Wainwright 1930

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He reminds me a bit of the Polish Nikifor.

A Similar age. Similar style too.

Nikifor, Nowy Sącz

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An orc, but a good artist. Active in the 80s and 90s.
Konstantin Batinkov. Untitled.

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As you can see, Russians love military themes.

Another one by Batinkov. He may be an orc, but he can draw.

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More from the orc Batinkov. Katsap or not, he knows how to paint.
This one is called "A Lathe Operator, 6th Grade, in a good mood (Токарь 6 разряда в хорошем настроении).

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A Ticket to Ride.
Sandra Wood

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How different this world used to be. All white faces, women with headscarves, no crowds on the bus...

I don't think the world was ever like that. it was quieter and more sociable pre-technology though the pic is set ini Manchester which was never really pre-technology since it was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution.

Plus. whenever there were fewer white people in the Americas or brown people in Europe it was neither better nor worse. Unless you were a Native American or African, in which case it was much better but far more boring.

The pic is idealised. The buses were full, the tip deck was smoky and the people ill-fed and worn out by very hard work while others sipped champagne.

Cy Twombly
Nicola's Irises, 1990

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Leon Tarasiewicz, Poland
Untitled, 2020

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Did someone already mentioned Zdzisław Beksiński?

Because whenever I stumble upon one of his works I can't look away for awhile...

[url=shorturl.at/B8iV2][/url]

There is something really special about him and his art!

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Often. They're very very dark, aren't they?

On the first glance absolutely unsettling....but then there is the second and the third glance...

Look at the image I posted....at first one would see someone strange trying to hide something behind his back, maybe threatening that childlike strange thing before him, right?

Well....when I look longer I see a face in the front "thing"....black eye holes....a thin lip....even the ear could work both ways...and then the arms look not threatening, hidden anymore but even begging! Begging someone before him...someone bigger....and the smaller childlike "thing" behind him looks into the same direction...maybe a crowd....but not threatening anymore....it could be both, couldn't it?

Or I have just to much fantasy....

Anyway....I admire every artist who has been able to evoke such emotions and thoughts in the observer....even as I have to ask how it did look like in his head which made such images possible...to bad he has gone already!

His name has cropped up on the Polish paintings thread before.

I like his work despite it being very dark. Not so much that I'd like his artwork hanging on my wall though!

This is a good site if you want to know more about him and see more of his paintings:

surrealismtoday.com/zdzislaw-beksinski/?srsltid=AfmBOory9Yy2ucugkdBvCD40tXP3ILchg_G-fLMUaTNzyoKL-aYJwS9Z

A sad end to his life though as he was murdered by someone he knew.

As a result, the price of his paintings increased dramatically.

Nowadays, art dealers really start pushing when artists get elderly since investors know the price will go up.

Beksiński's art has themes in common with Goya and Blake.

William Blake, 1757-1827

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Max Beckmann
The Weatherman, 1951

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my moms friend, friend was in the Weathermen, as in the Californian terrorist group. he was saying that was his housemate.