Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Inspiration: Painters

I've been home from school for the past few weeks now and it's been absolutely wonderful to be back in Indiana!  After being required to pour out so much creativity during the school year, I've used these first few weeks to catch up on time to research new inspiration.

My mom received her degree in painting so I've been looking through her old reference books.  Here are some paintings that caught my eye:
 George Hendrik Breitner
  
 Charles Webster Hawthorne
 
   Robert Lewis Reid
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Are there any artist that you would recommend for inspiration?  I'd love to look them up!  

17 comments:

  1. Hello! Glad to hear you are back and enjoying some down time. I was in Indiana three weeks ago. I was shocked at how many Amish there were where I was! And how many churches! And how cheap things were there! I don't know where you live at all, but I liked Fort Wayne. My husbands grandmother went to Fort Wayne Bible College in the 1940s.

    Are you still going to publish a Kaftan pattern? I've been checking your blog weekly because I really want to make one!

    I don't use painting as inspiration, but usually photography. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Carolynn! That's too crazy that you were in Fort Wayne! I live in the country outside of town, just on the city line. I agree it is a good city - definitely a lot of churches and it has some really beautiful cathedrals. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

      For your question about the kaftan tutorial - yes, I'm going to publish it very soon! I have so many things to publish from school that it's been on my list for a while and will be coming up soon. Thanks for being patient for it! I needed to finish up a few photo edits, but it'll be published this month :)

      Delete
  2. Glad to hear you're happily back home! I'd recommend looking up Michael Borremans, a Belgian painter. His stuff is absolutely gorgeous, and the atmosphere is something else!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Anneke! Thank you so much for your recommendation! I looked him up and wow you're right - the atmosphere is so strong. I looked at his watercolor/drawings and those are really powerful as well. Thank you, I'll definitely keep him on my list of artists to look up!

      Delete
    2. I'm happy Michael Borremans is mentioned here. He has an exhibition running here in Bozar, Brussels at the moment which I went to visit a couple of weeks ago and his works have the power to make me fall silent -- same with the paintings you posted here.

      Delete
  3. Wow, i love that first one! Just something about the way shes positioned & the very glamorous dress shes in.

    Hayley xx
    www.addictionstoshopping.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't it just beautiful?! I'm hoping to recreate a photo shoot of it!

      Delete
  4. I wrote a blog post on some of my favorite artists--it centers more on landscape than on figurative painting, but you may still discover some new favorites. Here's the link: https://patternandbranch.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/landscape/ I didn't mention all my favorites, because there are just so many amazing artists, but you might also check out Sy Ellens (from MI, actually), and I love, love, love John William Waterhouse for figural (and sartorially inspiring) paintings--he might be your best pick if you are are looking for clothing + general beauty. Actually--I'm sure you would love him if you don't already--he painted so many stories as well as other scenes. Hope you have a lovely summer!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Some of my favorites: http://blog.loish.net/, http://ghostco.tumblr.com/, http://fifi-lapin.blogspot.com/, http://j-b0x.tumblr.com/, and http://justjingles.tumblr.com/. They don't really fit the theme, but I prefer contemporary artists.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I just typed away a full paragraph on John William Waterhouse and then I look up a couple comments above me an lo and behold someone else mentioned him. "Boreas" and "Miranda and the Tempest" are two of my absolute favorite paintings and very much in the same vein as the ones you posted. On a completely opposite note, Edward Gorey is a dream.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello Esther,
    thank you so much for these nice pictures...
    I would recommend you for inspiration some painters from Slovakia - I LOVE Albin Brunovsky, then Ladislav Mednyansky (or Mednansky) and Dominik Skutecky and his "Trh v Banskej Bystrici" (The Banska Bystrica fair)

    Ingrid

    ReplyDelete
  8. So many amazing artists! Here are some inspiring portrait and figurative artists: Sandra Flood, Dennis Bruce Spencer, David Gray, Lucien Freud, Ali Cavanaugh, Norman Rockwell, William Cumming . . .

    ReplyDelete
  9. OK, now I thought of more...Repin (Russian) and Mucha are also pretty cool.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello Ester. I started reading blogs again last week and discovered yours. I thought I would contribute an artist: http://www.trevorsouthey.com
    I discovered this painter/sculptor a few years ago at the UMFA and couldn't take my eyes off the pieces.
    I hope you like his work.
    Juliette

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Esther! Fabulous post, I have been a fan of Breitners gorgeous paintings for a while now. You should look up Isaac Israels and Edgar Degas, both make amazing work.

    ReplyDelete
  12. John William Waterhouse, Gustav Klimt and James Christensen have all done great work with female subjects.

    ReplyDelete