Went to our nation’s capital over the long weekend, and visited the National Art Gallery. It was lovely, and, I have to say, a perfect gallery size. Just large enough to fit several interesting and varied expositions, and just small enough to look through in entirely without collapsing from exhaustion. So, good times were had.
However, I think some people would consider my art tastes to be very philistine. For example, I like paintings like this, and this and this. Which is considered kinda typical and boring, as far as art tastes go. No black rectangles on white background or crushed egg shells in an empty room for me, thanks.
That’s not to say I don’t like modern, post-modernist, etc. art – I do, frequently a lot, provided it meets my main criteria: art I am most drawn to (hah) is that which exhibits incredible skill or creativity on the part of the artist. For example, Rembrandt’s portraits – how does he make them so realistic, how does he manage to both have harsh shadow-light contrast and yet also this gentle softness in every line?? (Please don’t mind my amateur and uneducated art analysis. I won’t pretend that I know even vaguely what I’m talking about).
I look and I look and I can’t conceive how these were possibly painted by a human hand. I tend to stand right up near a painting, trying to discern the layers of paint, trying to compute how he mixed the hues and brushed them on to produce the final result (until a guard yells at me to back away from the art).
Or, there was this…thing… at the Art Gallery of Ontario, a slowly spinning statue of sorts, suspended from the ceiling and made of of life-size cellophane deer, all piled and entwined together. It clearly took a lot of time and effort, and was delightfully weird and unique. I liked that a lot.
Anyway, what I’m getting at, is Ivan Aivazovsky, a.k.a. Иван Константинович Айвазовский, a Russian painter of Armenian descent. Six or seven years ago, on my last trip to Moscow, mom and I went to the Tretyakov Gallery, and I. Love. His. Stuff.
He mostly paints water, storms, shipwrecks… but HOW he paints them! I don’t understand how he can make the water so translucent. I just love it. These pictures won’t do him justice, because these paintings need to be seen in all their real, large, beautiful glory, but anyway, here’s a sample:
Anyway, he’s terrific. Also, his paintings remind me of all these adventure books I loved as a kid, like Treasure Island, and Count of Monte Cristo.
this is russian 
