Everyday Canvas

Paintings

Prompt: What is your favorite work of art?

---------------------------

This is difficult because I have many favorites and not any one favorite. Rembrandt’s every piece is a favorite. His work can only be appreciated fully when you see a painting of his itself, and not its copies. The first time I saw a self-portrait hanging in Washington’s National Gallery of Art, I was mesmerized. It was as if the portrait was looking at me and speaking: even though the tones and hues were extremely dark, the eyes were something else; alive and out of this world are the descriptions that come to mind.

Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Gauguin are other favorites.

I also like early Americans, almost every one of them, my favorite being Edward Hopper.

I love the works in watercolors, especially those of John Pike, John Singer Sargent, Andrew Wyeth, and Winslow Homer.

I also like a whole group of Russian artists, starting with Ivan Shishkin who paints trees and woods in rich lights and shades and in fine details and Vasily Polenov for his use of color.

I also favor Mondrian, Matisse, and Joan Miro.

I love The Scream by Edvard Munch, not for its beauty but for its expression.

I also love the many watercolor paintings of the people who are my contemporaries or of younger generations that I have seen in galleries, but their names escape me.

I am sure I forgot to mention a whole slew of names, especially the ones in the impressionist movement, but I like the works of each painter for a different reason. Some favor color, others shape or line, and still others expression. Expression always gets me as well as the interplay of the light and shade.

This is what I like, but if the question were to be an art appreciation question, I would probably come up with a not so-subjective evaluation; because art-appreciation can be learned, but liking or not liking is a personal matter.