What Is Your Favorite Piece Of Artwork

Which art piece is your favourite?

“Which art piece is your favourite?”Since 1180 AD, There has existed the Kingdom of Benin. Once it stretched across a large part of present day southern Nigeria ,Republic of Benin and Togo. With its capital in Benin City in now Nigeria. Ruled by the Edo people.They were ferocious warriors but also fantastic artists. Working in wood (ebony and other African hard wood) Ivory and Bronze.Now you find their art artefacts in Museums for St.Petersburg to London to Washington.All the artefacts were stolen After the British invasion of 1897. Benin Expedition of 1897 lead by Sir Henry Lionel Galway.The Kingdom is now centred around the ancient City of Benin Nigeria.Today they still work in the same art studios their grandfathers worked for centuries.unfortunately the youth are now into quick money, and the skill is slowly dying.The Edo people did not have a written script and recorded the events in form of artlike the Benin plaques in the British museum recording the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15th century.They recorded their Kings (Obas) and queens in art formStill they create incredible art to this dayThis brings me to my favourite.The Fastac maskSo called because it was the emblem of the Festival of all black and African culture held in 1977 (Festac). We asked the British to borrow it for the event and were refused. It is actually the ivory carving of a 16th century queen Idia. She now resides in the British museum. I find her very beautifully made. As if she has silently been watching what has been going on over the centuries.In 2011, To our shock another example turns upBenin ivory mask withdrawn from Sotheby's sale. They ran and to hide again after our lawyers went looking for them. It seems that Galway not only raided and stole for the British. He also stole some of the loot from the British for himself. His family were trying to sell it.One thing the British Museum claiming they are holding our artefact to keep them safe. Another thing that the descendants of the looters are holding onto them too.Do not know why it is called the British Museum? There is nothing British in it.

What is your favorite piece of steampunk artwork?

Uhhhh depends on what type of art you’re talking about!I can’t really choose a favorite of 2D artwork, but I can say that pretty much anything Steampunk of Brian Kesinger’s I will love.For 3D work, I will go the route of fashion design and say this Steampunk look from Firefly Path. I LOVE her work (one day I hope to buy something from her ;o;). This is a full outfit she designed by hand and crafted/put together by hand (like all her fashions) and just the sheer amount of work that went into all this detail and the level of professionalism blows me away.There is also a male counterpart outfit she created!For musical/non-visual art, I will say that Lindsey Stirling’s Steampunk themed music and videos are certainly a favorite of mine.And this epic score song London 1856 by Walid Feghali, under the moniker A Steampunk Orchestra. The fact that one guy made this and it’s just such a cool sound, makes me so happy and impressed. This just SOUNDS the way I imagine a steampunk adventure to go and it always puts me in a steampunky mood ^_^OH and out of my own steampunk artwork? I think this is my favorite drawing I’ve done:

How does your favorite piece of artwork make you feel?

How does your favorite piece of artwork make you feel?This will be hard to explain. My favourite artwork changes with every new viewing. It started when I was just a kid in grade school. I discovered Rembrandt and was blown away by his paintings and etchings. I finally came to appreciate his self-portraits, my favourite was the second last he ever painted. I still have a poster of it on my wall. With his work I found inspiration to draw in a very tough childhood.Then I discovered Tom Thomson, WOW, the use of colours was inspiring. I had to go to the McMichael Gallery and view all the works they had of Thompson and the rest of the group of Seven. The West Wind still holds a place in my soul. I also went crazy over Loren Harris for a while and his canvases of the arctic. His ice burgs are very spiritual to me. I went through a blue phase because of them.This is my problem. if you call it a problem, I find a new favourite every time I discover a new artist. They all affect me in the same way, with awe and inspiration. They all make me want to try a multitude of styles and mediums. I am not trying to emulate their work but try to capture the spirit. Maybe it will bleed into my own work. Next week I will be going to a new show opening and may find my next favourite artwork, or not. The work has to be inspiring, it has to move me or it's just another piece of art. To date, I can probably number my favourites in the hundreds and climbing.I can’t help myself, It’s like eating one chip or reading one page of a book you have waited months for. I don’t have that kind of will power and I love it too much to stop.With all the great works out there how can I limit myself to one or two?

What is your favorite piece of modern art?

When I think about modern art, I think of Picasso. I like his work a lot, for example Guernica and Las Meninas, but I decided to write about Portrait of Dora Maar, one of my favorites because of its bright colors and maybe because it was the first Picasso painting a saw in my life, on a poster hanging in my art classroom in high school.Picasso had quite a lot of women in his life, who served as his muse and who were often subject of his paintings. One of them was Henriette Theodora Markovitch, better known as Dora Maar, a French photographer, painter and poet who’s long pointy bright red nails caught Picasso’s eye. Maar was also Picasso’s lover for quite a long time and his assistant while he worked on his Guernica. The only photo’s of Picasso painting this work existing are the ones Dora Maar took.Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937, oil on canvas, 92 x 65 cm, Musée Picasso, ParisPicasso painted this work when he and Dora Maar had met only a couple of years before. In this painting, in contrast to a couple of other paintings he made with her as the subject, Picasso depicted Maar looking happy, with a little smile on her face. With the pointy red nails he liked so much.

What are your favorite pieces of artwork you’ve created?

After a piece is done I have a short love affair with it and then I cast it aside for the next piece which I will love with equal if not greater fervor than the last.I have a hundred? More than that, actually of very good showable pieces. I have almost no favorites. I do have a few that I would not ever sell. But mostly because they were transition pieces and I learned something big at that moment. Most of my favorite paintings I have sold. In terms of photographs I sell them and am pleased someone wants them.The pieces that I think are the coolest, are usually pieces that nobody else thinks are cool. I like them all pretty much equally because my skill and talent and work is consistent, this is a good piece and that is a good piece, it is like that. The piece that I like the best is the one I am working on at that moment. The piece that I think will be my best piece is the next piece I have not started yet.Depending on the length of time one has been working, and depending on how prolific one is the number of favorites and good pieces of work are really large.

What is your favorite piece of inappropriate artwork?

Here we see Victorine Meurent[1] as a young woman, painted by the French artist Eduard Manet.Do you recognize her? No?Let's take her clothes away.....First we put her in a beautiful garden.[2]Ahh .. much better. Now we recognize her!Let's have another look at the young lady, this time resting naked on her bed in the boudoir.[3].Wow!! We have seen that before for sure..But what's that? She's staring direct at us. Are we one of her many lovers? Maybe the one who send her the flowers? Does she know that we are staring a her?These paintings by Eduard Manet caused a huge scandal when exhibited 1863 in Paris. People were not used to see nudity outside of a classical context. Today it's different, but the fascination of these paintings remains.Many artists have tried to recreate them...These inappropriate artworks have become iconic images of our time..What do you think?Why are these pictures so famous?Footnotes[1] Victorine Meurent - Wikipedia[2] Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe - Wikipedia[3] Olympia (Manet) - Wikipedia

What is your favourite piece of art that you have done?

THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTERS, mixed media on panel, 24 X 30″ 2012My art may be unique. I use mixed media and the media does almost all of the work. I just guide it. It works due to chemical reactions, differing weights of pigments and surface tension. I don’t use traditional things like brushes or pallet knives much if at all. Mostly I use kitchen utensils. This is a favourite piece but I don’t have a single favourite piece because I love them all for different reasons.Family Time, acrylic on panel, 24 X 18″ 2012Different style, different subject matter. The colours and and the feeling of watchful peace grabs me every time.Leaf Fans Are Everywhere, mixed media on canvas, 60 x 40″, 2001What is life without a sense of humour? My wife bought me a copy of artist James Christensen for Christmas one year. In it he made such a big deal about copyrighting his artwork, I had to spoof him. What you see here are very unlikely Toronto Maple Leaf fans who have set aside their quest for the Stanley Cup. On the wall on the left you see a framed photo of James wearing the goatee and moustache I decorated him with. So I lift a glass to the great man now and then for his efforts to patent an idea.