A Few of Your Favorite (Art) Things

Today’s Image

A Cerulean Blue Sky in Rowboat

in the Impressionist style

Do you have art favorites? I know I do, and you probably do, too. You may not think you do because you never took the time give it a thought. But I’ll bet you probably do—no, you absolutely do have favorites. My acrylic painting, Rowboat, in the Impressionist style is Today's Image.

After reading today’s OrbisPlanis art blog in toto, please, spend a few minutes thinking about it. Then you’ll be able to tell everyone what your art favorites are; that is, your favorite piece of art work, your favorite artist, your favorite medium, your favorite genre, and, what the heck, why not add your favorite color, too?

Your art favorites don’t have to be related to each other. For example, you don’t have to choose your favorite color, which is in a painting done in your favorite medium, which happens to be in your favorite genre, and, oh, by the way, is by the artist who painted your favorite piece of artwork—unless those all happen to be your favorites. Your favorites can be mutually exclusive or not.

Here are my favorites, at least at this point in time in my life. I boldly reserve the right to change my favorites at any time. And so should you.

My Favorite Piece of Artwork – Ladder to the Moon by Georgia O’Keeffe

I have a framed print of that famous piece of art hanging over a sofa. I’ve hung it on various walls for years. I purchased it at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, while on a business trip in 1997. It takes me to the high desert night when I focus on it, and I never get tired of looking at it.

Your Favorite Piece of Artwork –

My Favorite Artist – Claude Monet

This is the most difficult choice for me and may be for you, too. There are so many to choose from, living and dead, famous and not, in all kinds of genres that it’s almost impossible to narrow it down to one. But it’s the task at hand.

A lot of you will think I’m probably swayed by all the attention Monet still receives worldwide, and maybe that’s true. However, after I actually read the book The Impressionists cover to cover, captions and all, I became an instant Claude Monet fan, and still am. I look for books with his work and will go out of my way to visit any museum that has one of his paintings.

Your Favorite Artist –

My Favorite Medium – Acrylic (on stretched canvas)

If you are a regular visitor to OrbisPlanis art blog or follow me on Twitter, you know I’m currently studying watercolor. But, what really got me re-invigorated with art a couple of years ago was my experience painting with acrylic. It’s a creative-inducing medium that is very forgiving for artists at all skill levels. You can use it like oils with a limited palette, or you can use all the colors available and be as creative as your soul will allow. If watercolor makes me as happy, I may change my mind.

Your Favorite Medium –

My Favorite Genre – Impressionism (no doubt about it)

Oh, I like realism well enough in landscapes and still lifes, and I’m also drawn to some of the Western motif paintings of the late 19th and early 20th century. But nothing draws my attention faster or makes me want to study the subject and style (sometimes brushstroke by brushstroke) more than an Impressionist painting—especially one by Monet or one of the other original Impressionists. They’re gauzy soft and seem to envelope you in their spell of the French landscape, people, and times.

Your Favorite Genre –

My Favorite Color – Okay, Cerulean Blue

Your favorite color may not be specific just to your favorite art—it may also be your favorite color of many other things, such as clothing. But I picked cerulean blue because I really like it when it’s mixed with titanium white and used to paint a bright sunny sky (for example, in a Claude Monet landscape).

Your Favorite Color –

So, those are my art favorites. What are yours?

Try this-- print out this page on your printer and write down your current favorites and put it away wherever you keep you art supplies. This time next year, and every year, pull it out and see if your tastes have changed.

Cheers!