Welcome Warmth!

So, the groundhog said spring is coming soon. He better be right.
Annnddd.
The best movie:

Groundhog Day - Ned Ryerson - watch more funny videos

Anndd...me wanting spring:







flowers and warm weather, come now!

ps, that last photo is detail from a much larger painting by Alma Tadema called Spring Rush In. Its pretty magnificent, I suggest you take a further look!

pps: the girl is Gwenyth Paltrow from a Vogue shoot a few years back. Its the only photoshoot I've ever liked her in.

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Introducing David R Daniels, a watercolorist.
Its vibrant and bright and beautiful...and so airy!
Enjoy:

This is the one I found first, that I'm doing a paper on for art class:







oh the magnificence of color:!




anyone interested can find more of his work here.

Little Things

I don't know if life's precious moments will ever be captured with such perfect simplicity again.

Thank you, Norman Rockwell.

in the garden

Monet. Maybe one of the most famous painters of all time, certainly the most famous impressionist.
But there's a reason why:




Reading about Monet, I see he was the ultimate perfectionist. He wanted to know and be able to do everything:
"The further I go, the sorrier I am about how little I know: it is this that bothers me the most."
and
"Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It's enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it"
He loved nature, adored nature. Gardens, seas, and flowers brought him the very most joy in life, it seems:
"I would like to paint the way a bird sings."
He obsessed over color, fantasized and dreamed about colors:
" You'll understand, I'm sure that I'm chasing the merest sliver of color. It's my own fault. I want to grasp the intangible. It's terrible how the light runs out. Color, any color, lasts a second, sometimes 3 or 4 minutes at most..."
And painted his beautiful nature with all his color knowlege constantly, never stopping between one painting and another, for hours and days at a time. Still, he was never satisfied:
"I know well enough in advance that you'll find my paintings perfect. I know that if they are exhibited they'll be a great success, but I couldn't be more indifferent to it since I know they are bad, I'm certain of it."

I feel like I know exactly what he's talking about in my own life...but Monet himself couldn't be more wrong. These pieces are absolutely gorgeous.

Oils and Life

I never mention my school life because it doesn't happen to be particularly lovely, but I am in college. One of the classes I'm taking is called art appreciation. its remarkable how the school system can take something so dynamic and beautiful and fascinating as art and painting and make it lifeless and flat.
I don't enjoy the class, and neither does anyone else in the room.

But last week we hit on a painter that not even such a boring class could dull its life! Renior.
Here's a few of my favorites, depicting moments of happy togetherness.






Isn't he wonderous? So lifelike and realistic, but so much cleaner, fresher, happier than real life. Like the way real life should be. I adore these paintings.
The youth enjoying their waterside spring vacation, the young ladies relaxing, the dance in the park, all of it! I'd like to jump into them and join in the fun.