What’s the sound of one hand clapping? When there is no one around you, how do you know if you have talent? Paul Cezanne never thought he was a true artist. He often destroyed his paintings after finishing them, because he didn’t like the result. Cezanne wanted to take part in the French Salon exhibitions, but never got accepted. Paul was so dissatisfied with the results of his work, that he even showed some sympathy with the jury of the Salon:

I understand very well that it could not be accepted, because of my point of departure, which was too far away from the objective to be achieved, namely the reproduction of nature.”

However, as mistrustful as he was in his own talent, he did have the courage to stand with his point of view in concerning how to paint nature. This reproduction of nature took place in two stages in Cezanne’s work. Before he had actually begun painting, he would sit down and just admire the view. He would spend a lot of time just looking at the subject, in order to understand its essence. Then he would realize the structure of the painting based on the forms and colors, which he saw. He always said that a painter should not only reproduce reality, but what he sees. However, the forms must retain a similarity with nature. “The re-forming process which a painter carries out as a result of his own personal way of seeing things gives a new interest to the depiction of nature. As a painter, he is revealing something which no-one has ever seen before and translating it into absolute concepts of painting. That is, into something other than reality.” Since Cezanne, “the absolute concepts of painting” are colors and forms. These are bent together in a spatial relationship. In this way, he sought to create a new harmony, which he called “harmony in parallel with nature”.

Even if he had a clear idea of how to paint, Cezanne still didn’t like the result. He would work on the same painting for long periods of time, sometimes even months. “Nature causes me the greatest of difficulties”, wrote Paul to his friend Emile Zola in 1897. His goal was to give the image permanence. This meant that the subject had to be placed in a balance, which was the result of numerous calculations, reflections and logic. However, the result was sometimes disastrous for Cezanne. It was like he had a picture in his mind but could never put it down on canvas.

As if he didn’t have enough mistrust in his talent, the press started to attack his paintings. An art critic wrote: “There is no outrageous epithet that has not been attached to his name. For my part, I do not know of any painting less laughable than his.” With these words, there is no wonder that Cezanne destroyed his paintings very often and didn’t trust his vision as an artist. However, he had the luck of having good friends who believed in his talent, such as Emile Zola and Camille Pissarro. The last one, older than him by nine years, had become his teacher. Most of the techniques he used later in his life when painting nature, he “borrowed” from Pissarro. “Pissarro was like a father to me… almost like the good God”, said Cezanne. As I heard once, “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. This was the break for Cezanne to begin to paint like a maestro.

The first thing Pissarro did was to encourage him to banish dark colors from his palette. He advised Cezanne to paint only with the primary colors. Then he showed him how to build up a picture of light-dark contrasts and encouraged him to observe nature, transferring onto canvas only what he saw. He shouldn’t interpret or add anything from his own imagination. Another advice Cezanne got from Pissarro was to build objects up by gradation of tonal value, rather than using lines to outline the forms. “Do not work bit by bit,” he said to Cezanne. This meant to apply color everywhere and observing the tonal values closely in relation to the surroundings. From this point on, Paul began to paint with small brush strokes, rather than big ones. He worked at the same time on the sky, the trees, the houses, rather than painting bit by bit. “Do not be afraid of applying strong color; gradually refine your work. Do not follow rules and principles, but paint what you see and feel,” advised Pissarro.

The two friends often chose the same subjects, painting side by side. This was a friendship that lasted a lifetime. Such friendship that one needs in critical moments in their lives, when they are shattered in mind. A friendship that gave Cezanne the courage he needed to stand up for what he believed a painting should look like, without the constraints of the Salon.

The following is a collection of the top posts of the week that we’ve shared on our facebook wall. We try and make our facebook posts informative and engaging as we love to hear what our fellow art lovin’ friends have to say about particular artists and their art.

So if you have a moment, check out our facebook page and share your passion for art and wall decor with us!

1. On Fridays, time often seems to stand still and the end of the workday seems like it will never arrive — a good day to contemplate Salvador Dali’s iconic soft watch images. In “Soft Watch at the Moment of First Explosion” the watch not only oozes, it explodes, a dynamic disintegration prompted in part by Dali’s musings on nuclear physics and atomic weapons.

   Dali (1904 – 1989) first introduced his melting watches in “The Persistence of Memory” (1931), and from then on soft watches appear regularly in his work. Ever cryptic, Dalí once described his melting watches as simply the “camembert of time”, but his melting watch images are generally considered to address mortality, the artist’s preoccupation with hard versus soft, and his interest in Einstein’s theory of relativity and its implication that time is not fixed but fluid. Each variation on the soft watch theme offers new elements and new insights into the life and mind of Dali, and endless hours can be spent exploring the rich symbolism he incorporates into his timeless works.

2. Vincent Van Gogh’s “Church at Auvers” is undoubtedly beautiful, and it holds our attention other reasons, too: it hints at the artist’s early evangelical aspirations, and it was one of the last paintings completed before his death in July 1890.

   Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) set out to become a pastor in his twenties, but had to abandon this dream after failing several theological examinations. For most of his life he’d been passively artistic—sketching things he found interesting, but not fully committing to art—and he changed his tune while doing missionary work in Belgium. Van Gogh decided to become an artist in God’s service, writing that it was “the real significance of what the great artists, the serious masters, tell us in their masterpieces, that leads to God.” Van Gogh’s relationship with religion became tenuous after his anxiety and mental illness set in; still, he always had an appreciation for the church.

   This painting of the church at Auvers-sur-Oise (where Van Gogh lived in the last months of his life), is by his own account done in the style of a previous painting of a church in the Netherlands. The “Church at Auvers” is much more colorful than the painting of the Dutch church, completed in 1885, but Van Gogh’s use of light is the same in each: both structures are backlit in blue, and are brightly lit by the sun, but both churches fail to reflect or emanate light of their own. Van Gogh purposefully painted the churches as dark and empty, as a means of symbolizing the “empty and unenlightened preaching” of some churches.

3. Star Dancer, Edgar Degas, c. 1874. Degas, son of a wealthy bank official, was born in Paris, later studying art at his home city’s famous Ecole Des Beaux-Arts. In Italy he later spent five years learning from the work of masters that went before him. Edgar Degas paintings during this period included Russian Dancers, The Rehearsal, The Dance Class and Two Dancers on a Stage.

   Upon his return to France in 1859, Edgar Degas exhibited these works. He soon joined the ranks of Impressionist painters.

   The entertainment world especially intrigued Degas and shows up often in his works throughout his life. Some of his most famous paintings, The Rehearsal, and Two Dancers on Stage, show of his fascination with the beauty and sophistication of ballet.

   Edgar Degas preferred painting in an art studio, which was unusual for the Impressionists of that time. He would sketch his subjects where he found them and then later return to his studio to capture them on oil and canvas.
   Degas spent a lot of his life studying and admiring Japanese prints and the Japanese tendency toward daring composition and large spots of flat coloring show up in several of his works.

   In later years of his life Degas turned from oil painting to clay and wax sculpturing and printmaking. The paintings he did produce at this time were pastel. In the 1890’s as he concentrated on printmaking he worked almost solely with female nudes. After serving in the war with Germany for one year in 1870 Edgar Degas began losing his eyesight and his sculpturing came of his inability to decipher paintings and colors enough to create them any longer.

4. “I am the primitive of the method I have invented.” Paul Cézanne

   Born last week in 1839, French painter Paul Cezanne (d. 1906) introduced a novel visual language of form, perspective, and structure that paved the way for the rise of Modernism in the 20th century. In “Turn in the Road” he uses an organized system of layers to construct a series of horizontal planes, which build dimension and draw the viewer into the landscape.

   Generally categorized as a Post-Impressionist, Cézanne’s studies of visual perception, geometric simplification, and experimentation with complex fractured forms kept his style changing throughout his career. His analytical approach to nature and his unique method of building form with color influenced the Cubists, Fauvists, and generations of avant-garde artists. Celebrate the birth of Paul Cézanne – the artist both Matisse and Picasso called “the father of us all”.

5. Why not give a more enduring gift this Valentine’s Day, like O’Keeffe’s Red Cannas, c. 1923?

   Born in Wisconsin, O’Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists were well known or highly celebrated.

   Within a mere decade, she had distinguished herself as one of America’s most important modern artists, a position she maintained throughout her life.

6. Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leader in the French Post-Impressionist movement. Starting his career off in business, Gauguin, after being rejected for the Exposition universalle, decided to create his own exhibition in a Paris cafe just outside the gates of the Exposition, featuring his works and those of his fellow artists.

   He was also an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer. His legendary and stormy relationship with fellow artist Vincent Van Gogh has stirred speculation that Gauguin cut off Van Gogh’s ear.

   Ondine, c. 1889, is one of Gauguin’s most noted works, and one of many that centered around the theme of water.

7. Vincent Van Gogh painted many trees during his short career—and among a bevy of cypresses and olive trees, this mulberry tree is a wonderful rarity.

   At his own request, Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) lived in an asylum in Saint-Rémy from 1889-90, and while there, he completed many landscapes featuring trees. Both cypresses and olive trees were plentiful in the region, and he found each compelling for different reasons. Olive trees were representative of Provence, and, according to a letter written to his brother, they presented Van Gogh with a challenge: “They are old silver, sometimes with more blue in them, sometimes greenish, bronzed, fading white above a soil which is yellow, pink, violet tinted orange very difficult.”

   After painting several compositions with cypresses, Van Gogh expanded the series at his sister Wil’s request. With these depictions of cypress trees, Van Gogh developed a method of imbuing landscapes with an ethereal tone through the use of thick impasto and swirling strokes. The same frenetic brushstrokes are applied to the mulberry tree here, and they give the viewer a great sense for the movement Van Gogh saw while painting the tree.

8. “Color is a power which directly influences the soul.” ― Wassily Kandinsky

   Credited with painting the first purely abstract works, Russian painter, graphic artist, and art theorist Wassily Kandinsky (1886 – 1944) experimented with a new kind of art which had no literal subject, but was instead an abstraction of colors and shapes. Kandinsky believed that art had a duty to be spiritual in nature and that color went beyond simple visual appeal and could touch the soul itself; for Kandinsky, “Blue” is a calming celestial color, the color of spirituality.

   Kandinsky left a career in law to pursue his art, and within a decade had made a name for himself throughout Europe, his non-objective works causing controversy among art critics, the public, and his fellow artists. Kandinsky participated in several of the most influential art movements of the 20th century, including the Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) and the Bauhaus movements, and his essay “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”, which explains his color theory and views on the nature of art, helped form the philosophic foundation for Abstract Expressionist artists.

9. One of his most famous paintings, The Wedding Candles, c. 1945 by Russian artist Marc Chagall shows an exceptional use of color, detail and brush strokes.

   Chagall was a Jewish painter who was born in Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire. Among the celebrated painters of the 20th century, he is associated with the modern movement. Chagall took inspiration from Belarusian folk-life, and portrayed many Biblical themes reflecting his Jewish heritage.

   Chagall’s works fit into several modern art categories, with his work always found itself on the margins of several movements, including including Cubism and Fauvism.

This is it! We hope you will continue to enjoy reading our ArtCorner blog in the new year and come join us on facebook for more artistic discussions!

Looking at Salvador Dali’s Swans Reflecting Elephants I was stricken by a sudden epiphany. Who was it that first said that swans were beautiful? We all know they are one of the symbols of grace, purity, and beauty but how often do we actually stop to look at them with a critical eye? Ungainly boat-shaped bodies, disproportionately long, snake-like necks, and a waddling gait – are these the attributes of a perfect being, a paragon of physical virtue? In what way does the miraculous transfiguration of Hans Christian Andersen’s infamous “Ugly” Duckling into the feathered equivalent of a snake in a boat constitute a good end? Of course Andersen never was too fond of happy endings…

It was this train of thought that led me to see this famous fairytale in a new light, and realize the superficial nature of the life-affirming end we have all been told by our parents. But have they told us the truth?

What if we look at the Ugly Duckling not as a positive symbol of the transformative power hidden within all of us, but as a profoundly disturbed individual with an agonizing inferiority complex? This complex stems in part from social rejection, in part from his own over-analytic nature. He does not see himself as the adorable, fluffy creature he is and lacks the lighthearted self-acceptance of childhood. Constantly judging and reassessing himself, he willingly accepts the taunts and jeers that are thrown his way. Perhaps he spends too much time looking at his own reflection – a futile exercise that has already brought about the demise of a menagerie of mythological figures.

Self-conscious to the point of obsessiveness, he dreams of only one thing – transformation. The glowing vision of a better self haunts his dreams and strengthens his belief in his own hideousness. He is not a misfit, he is a monster, shunned and loathed by all, even her whom he considers his mother. Seasons pass, and he gradually begins to change. Wearied by his own self-loathing, he hides from himself and is not aware of the alteration at first. But then the revelation comes. Gliding along the glossy surface of a sunlight lake, he takes a deep breath and looks down. But what does the despondent, unsatisfied perfectionist really see in this inverted image? Is it the radiant embodiment of exquisite elegance? No – it is an elephant, a twisted, surrealist inversion of his glamorous fantasies. The stricken idealist stares in horror at the image projected by his distorted imagination. There is no hope then. The world has betrayed his impossible standards, it has proved incapable of producing perfection. Then, like a mocking parody of Narcissus, he plunges into his own reflection and gives up his tormented soul to the dark, swirling waters of the lake.

A planned art theft made by the book. One or more thieves on the second week of the year stole three paintings from the National Greek Gallery in Athens. The entire heist took about seven minutes, according to police.

One of the artworks was made by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, “Woman’s Head,” a 1930s cubist bust painting. The art had been donated by the artist himself to the Greek people in 1949, as an honorary offer for its brave resistance during the Nazi occupation, in the context of the donation of French artists’ works.

Besides Picasso’s painting, the thieves also stole Piet Mondrian’s “Mill,” a 1905 oil canvas of a riverside scene and windmill. The Dutch painter made the artwork in 1905, and had been hanging on The National Greek Gallery wall since 1963, by the donation of Alexander Pappas.

The third art work now in the hands of the thieves is a pen-and-ink sketch of St. Diego de Alcala in ecstasy with Holy Trinity and the symbols of passion, made in the 16th century by the Italian artist Guglielmo Caccia. The work had been donated to the National Gallery by Gregory Maraslis in 1907.

The thieves got into the Museum by an ingenious plan: At the beginning of that evening, the robbers intentionally set off the gallery’s alarm system several times without entering the building. Police stated that the security staffers on duty investigated and found no disturbances. In consequence, they disabled one of the alarms. The burglars then entered through a balcony door uninterrupted!

However, their plan was compromised by one of the motion sensors in the exhibition area. It was 4:30 in the morning, local time. At that moment, one of the guards just arrived in time to see one of the suspects fleeing. If he hadn’t been there, the thieves could have also gone with another 1905 Mondrian work. The painting depicting a typical farm had been abandoned by the robbers at the guardian’s arrival!

The National Greek Gallery hadn’t made an estimation of the art works valued yet. Furthermore, the thieves had not been apprehended as of now. Several investigations are being carried out to identify and arrest the offenders. Another investigation is being conducted by the Attica Security Division. In addition, international searches which have been issued in order to trace the paintings.

This theft is only one in a long line of Picasso related burglaries done in the last decade, and the Picasso stolen now, “Woman’s Head,” joins a long list of Picasso’s that still remain at large. For example “The Dance,” disappeared on February 24th, 2006, from the Museu da Chacara do Ceu in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and “The Pigeon with Green Peas,” stolen from the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris last year, on May 20th 2011.

Moreover, in 2011, art thieves destroyed a Picasso that was estimated at $100 million. The works (by Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani) that were stolen last year from a museum in Paris were thrown in the garbage and probably crushed by a rubbish truck.

Here is a list of the top 10 artists with most works stolen, Picasso leads the bunch by a considerable margin:

1. Pablo Picasso – 1,147
2. Nick Lawrence – 557
3. Marc Chagall – 516
4. Karel Appel – 505
5. Salvador Dali – 505
6. Joan Miro – 478
7. David Levine – 343
8. Andy Warhol – 343
9. Rembrandt – 337
10. Peter Reinicke – 336

Eleanor’s bedroom here was smaller than the one at home. She lay in a small but comfortable bed by the window, the drawn curtains leaving the room in semi-darkness. Eleanor’s eyes were open, but she was staring blankly at the window, as if unaware of anything around her. Her mother sat by the bed with a look of concern on her face, heedless of the soft rustling sound disturbing the heavy silence. After a while she raised herself from the chair and headed quietly towards the door. Springing up with a sudden burst of energy, Eleanor stretched her arms desperately towards her mother.

“Don’t leave me!” she wailed, “They will come after me! I can hear them climbing up the wall!”

Mother sighed patiently, “Nothing is coming after you dear. You just need some peace and quiet, and everything will be okay.” Of course Eleanor knew it wouldn’t be, but how could she explain? She watched her mother leave in despairing silence.

The rustling and scraping sounds outside the window intensify. Eleanor’s breathing grows heavier. For a moment, the sounds outside cease, and all that Eleanor can hear is the sound of her own heartbeat. Then the curtain concealing the window begins to move as if pushed by some unseen force, and spread over Eleanor’s bed. The scraping sound returns, louder than ever. Eleanor sits motionless, staring at the curtain, unable to utter a sound…

It was a beautiful morning. As Eleanor’s mother came down the hallway with a wholesome breakfast tray, her step was springy and optimistic, and she hummed a cheerful song. Reaching Eleanor’s door, she had to fumble with the tray for a few seconds before she managed to turn the handle. The door swung open to reveal a view of the room.

She was still humming as looked over at Eleanor’s bed. Sitting in the next room, Father heard the humming stop abruptly, and the tray come crashing down to the floor.

Eleanor lay sprawled on the bed, her blanket in a tumbled heap on the floor. Her hands convulsively grasped the stem of an enormous sunflower lying on top of her. Her face was entirely hidden from view by its poisonously yellow petals, wrapped tightly around her head. She was dead.

As the cold gray twilight faded over the cemetery, Eleanor’s parents watched as their daughter’s coffin was slowly lowered into the grave accompanied by Mother’s sobs. At least she had the comfort of knowing that everything was just as little Eleanor would have wanted. The grave overflowed with her favorite flowers – sunflowers. Mother tenderly caressed the sunflower found in Eleanor’s room and gazed at it with tears in her eyes.

“Watch over and protect our poor Eleanor. She was so very fond of sunflowers,” she whispered, kissing the flower and lowering it reverently into her daughter’s grave. Perhaps the tears blurred her vision as she turned away, but she didn’t see the Sunflower slowly begin to claw at the lid of the coffin with its predatory leaves. She never did.

Go back to review parts II and I.

The online art gallery overstockArt.com, published today its official Top 10 list of most romantic oil paintings for Valentine’s Day 2012. Topping the chart for the second year in a row is Gustav Klimt’s sensual masterpiece “The Kiss.” Other artists named on the 2012 Valentine’s Day Top 10 Romantic Oil Paintings list include Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Paul Gauguin, Edward Hopper, Pablo Picasso, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

The Top 10 Romantic Oil Paintings according to overstockArt.com’s statistics are:

1. “The Kiss,” Gustav Klimt
2. “Hand with Bouquet,” Pablo Picasso
3. “Summer Evening,” Edward Hopper
4. “The Equestrian,” Marc Chagall
5. “When Will you Marry?,” Paul Gauguin
6. “Dance in the City,” Pierre-Auguste Renoir
7. “Two Women Running on the Beach,” Pablo Picasso
8. “Boating on the Seine,” Pierre-Auguste Renoir
9. “Fulfillment (The Embrace),” Gustav Klimt
10. “The Meditative Rose,” Salvador Dali

More than 3,700,000 page views to overstockArt.com’s Romantic Art Gallery in the past year were tracked. According to the click tracking, “The Kiss,” was the most sought after painting clicked at nearly seven percent, and Pablo Picasso’s “Hand with Bouquet” came in second, garnering five percent of the clicks to grab.

Created during Klimt’s “Golden Period,” “The Kiss” is renowned because of its tender representation of two lovers intertwined into one being, symbolizing the strength of this bond. The opulent and sensuous images in the painting create a sense of decadence, which modern art lovers appreciate to this day. “The Kiss” has topped not only the Top 10 Romantic Oil Paintings for two consecutive years, but has been one of the top four paintings in overstockArt.com’s annual Top 10 Oil Paintings list for the past six years.

“Every February we see a large spike in the traffic visiting our Romantic Art Gallery. Last year, the two weeks leading to Valentine’s Day brought 50 percent of all annual traffic to the gallery,” said David Sasson, founder and president of overstockArt.com. “Valentine’s Day brings out the romantic in all of us and with sensuous paintings like ‘The Kiss’ and tender images such as ‘Hand with Bouquet’ – it’s easy to find a fine art piece that your loved one will treasure for a lifetime!”

Eleanor’s mother could not understand why, just when she seemed so much better she had suddenly had a panic attack during a bath. She could not imagine that it was triggered by Eleanor’s yellow rubber duck. The unfortunate girl could sense the horror coming on as it landed with a crash in her foamy bath water – it was the color – the agonizing yellow of the sunflowers that haunted her dreams.

The duck’s body begins to stretch and elongate, while sunflower petals grow out of its head. Eleanor tries to scream, but is unable to find her voice. She begins to push herself to the other side of the bathtub, but the duck, now completely transformed into a sunflower pursues her, floating eerily above the foam.

Before the Sunflowers, Eleanor used to love to sit in the kitchen watching her mother cook. Today however, everything was different. As Mother tipped a bottle of sunflower oil over the frying pan, Eleanor stared nervously at the rough drawing of a sunflower on the label, and the stream of yellowish oil trickling with a deafening growl onto the hot pan.

A funnel of oil rises out of the pan with petals bursting from its top. Her mother doesn’t see it. Eleanor’s eyes widen in fear and she presses herself to the wall. Though she forces herself to remain silent the image pursues her throughout dinner, and the fried potatoes, tainted by the loathsome essence of the oil seem to vibrate beneath her fork.

As Eleanor’s odd behavior increased, her parents began to wonder whether her nervous condition required something more than warm tea. Perhaps a nice trip to the south of France would give her the rest she needed…

In the warm sunlight of a French summer, the family stood in front of a small, cozy-looking country house. The house was freshly painted, and looked clean and very cheerful. Flowerpots stood on the windowsills and a rocking chair creaked on the wooden porch. The house and the yard were surrounded by a fence. Eleanor listlessly surveyed the scene with an absent look. Her face was drained of all color and very thin. Her eyes, which seemed even bigger than before were red from lack of sleep and had a feverish, haunted look in them. Mother took her gently by the hand and led her over to the back gate of the fence.

“There is a beautiful field behind this house.” She murmured softly, “It is so lovely and bright, I am sure the sight of it will cheer you up.” Stepping forward with a tentative shuffle, Eleanor raised her eyes.

The field is a sea of sunflowers of every possible shade of yellow, glowing in the light of the rising sun. The sunflowers turn their sightless faces towards her, their long necks bend over her, drowning her small figure in their sprawling shadow. Suddenly a metal blade, flashing in the sun crashes down on the neck of one of the sunflowers. Its head falls to the ground with a sickening crunch. It rolls towards Eleanor and stops right at her feet, its dead petals brushing against her toes. Eleanor stands motionless, paralyzed by fear. An army of peasants armed with glittering scythes descends on the army of sunflowers. A bloody battle begins. Sunflower heads fly in all directions, stems crash down on all sides, the sunflowers stretch towards the men, shaking their leaves threateningly. Tearing their roots out of the ground, they march towards their adversaries, slashing at them with their powerful leaves. Some slither on the ground like snakes, tangling themselves around feet and dragging their victims to the ground. The field is strewn with dead bodies, and the sunflowers stand over them in grim triumph, blood dripping from their murderous petals.

Click to continue reading part III of this tantalizing story >

It was around four o’clock in the afternoon in a room of Postimpressionistic art at the National Gallery in London. A row of rigid, backless wooden benches cut across the center of the room, and the bright fluorescent lamps hanging from the high ceiling infused the atmosphere with a sickly yellow light. The scanty group of listlessly wandering visitors barely disturbed the oppressive silence.

A couple walked in accompanied by their young daughter. She seemed to be about six years old, her small stature and innocent, large brown eyes making her look even younger. Her frail figure was encased in a flowered pink dress and a yellow wool sweater, which offset her pale complexion. The family walked around the room stopping at a Van Gogh painting. The painting depicted a vase overflowing with vivid yellow sunflowers, which seemed to pop out from their flat blue background. Turning towards the girl the mother began to gesture towards the painting as if explaining something. To the child however, her voice remained unheard.

At first she seemed merely lost in thought, as if she was either not listening, or not hearing what her mother was saying to her. She was staring fixedly at the painting, as an expression of fascination bordering on fear spread gradually over her face…

The sunflowers were motionless only a second ago, but they are slowly beginning to move. Some grasp the edge of the vase with their tentacle-like petals like insects preparing to crawl down the side of the vase, others stretch their green necks forward as if struggling to burst out of the painting. One sunflower slithers out of the vase and begins to make its way across the table top, towards the edge of the painting. Its featureless brown face, surrounded by a mass of writhing yellow petals seems to gaze out in silent menace as it gets closer and closer…

With a cry of terror, she backed away from the painting, almost tripping over her mother’s foot. Her mother stopped talking and looked down at her in surprise. Through the numbness of her horror, she could barely make out her mother’s voice: “Eleanor! What is wrong with you? Stop playing around and pay attention. I was just telling you about the artist who made this beautiful painting. Eleanor, are you listening to me? Eleanor?”

Eleanor glanced absently at her mother and then her eyes slowly drifted back to the painting. Now however, the painting was perfectly peaceful and motionless. Oblivious, her mother turned to her father. “I think we should take Eleanor home now.” She said with a trace of irritation in her voice, “She is obviously too tired to concentrate, and we can always come back another day.”

Assertively, Mother took Eleanor by the hand and led her out of the room. Eleanor followed, her eyes still fixed on the painting.

That night, as Eleanor lay in bed in her ruffled nightgown beneath a fluffy blanket, neither the cheerful curtains on her window, nor the sight of her favorite toys could quell the overwhelming premonition of evil that was beginning to take possession of her senses. Everything felt somehow different, and even the comforting yellow glow of her nightlight, throwing spots of light onto her ceiling seemed eerie and disturbing.
Eleanor stared intently at the spot, her small fingers unconsciously grabbing the edge of the blanket, pulling it up to her chin.

The yellow spot on the ceiling grows in size and quickly multiplies into more spots which begin to morph into silhouettes of sunflowers. The sunflowers begin a wild, swirling dance that begins to move closer and closer to the bed as the sunflowers stretch their leaves like arms threateningly in her direction. Eleanor inches away from them in mute terror. One of her hands gropes desperately around the bed in search of something to use for protection, as she waves the other helplessly in front of the advancing sunflowers. The sunflowers are inches away from her. She begins to gasp for air, her hands still searching frantically over the bed. Just as one of the sunflowers gets close enough to brush against her face, she utters a strangled yell and conceals herself entirely beneath the blanket.

A week passed, and the doctor reassured Eleanor’s parents that she was getting better. Only Eleanor knew that this wasn’t true. She did her best to pretend to participate in normal, everyday life, but visions of the sunflowers only plagued her more and more…

Click to continue reading part II of this tantalizing story >

The following is a collection of the top posts of the week that we’ve shared on our facebook wall. We try and make our facebook posts informative and engaging as we love to hear what our fellow art lovin’ friends have to say about particular artists and their art.

So if you have a moment, check out our facebook page and share your passion for art and wall decor with us!

1. “I make no distinction between painting and poetry….” The poetic paintings of 20th century master Joan Miro (1893-1983) amuse, inspire and captivate audiences worldwide.

   Born in Barcelona, Spain, Miro studied art at School of Fine Arts at La Llotja and Gali’s Escola d’Art. His earliest works show the influence of the Fauve and Cubist movements which were fashionable in Spain during the early part of the century. In 1920, Miro traveled to Paris and painted with Surrealists Andr, Masson and Max Ernst. While frequently identified with the Surrealist movement, Miro never fully accepted the movement’s creed and refused to sign the Surrealist Manifesto.

   Miro’s vibrant canvases transport the viewer to alien worlds inhabited by all manner of whimsical creatures. His work has been characterized as psychic automatism, an expression of the subconscious in free form. By 1930 Miró had developed a lyrical style that remained fairly consistent. It is distinguished by the use of brilliant pure color and the playful juxtaposition of delicate lines with abstract, often amoebic shapes. Throughout his life, Miro felt a deep connection to his Catalan heritage and much of the symbolism that is so prevalent in his work is deeply rooted in this bond.

   In 1940 Miro returned to Spain and began to explore new media including large scale sculpture, ceramics, murals and tapestries. Following his first retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art in 1941, Miro achieved international acclaim and is recognized as a pioneer of Modernism. After 1941, Miró lived mainly in Majorca. He painted murals for hotels in New York City and Cincinnati and for the Graduate Center at Harvard. In 1958 he completed ceramic decorations for the UNESCO buildings in Paris. Many of his canvases are in the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, both in New York City.

2. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) experimented with the Cubist style he co-founded throughout his career, varying the style to create new ways of expressing himself. Painted in 1932 when he was 50 years old, Pablo Picasso’s “Le Rêve” (“The Dream”), has long been famous as an example of his later Cubist works — and infamous for its erotic portrayal of his then young mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter.

   “The Dream” became something of a nightmare for owner Steve Wynn, who purchased “Le Rêve” in 2001 for an undisclosed sum, estimated to be about $60 million. The painting became the centerpiece of his collection, often on display at the Bellagio Las Vegas, but in 2006, Wynn was set to part with the painting for a record $139 million. Sharing the news of the recently finalized sale to friends, Wynn accidentally elbowed the painting, creating a half-dollar sized hole in the masterpiece. Wynn ultimately decided to release the buyer from the sale agreement and to repair and keep the painting himself, and “Le Rêve” remains part of Wynn’s private collection, which also includes works by artists Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, Édouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol, and Johannes Vermeer.

   Experience our collection of Picasso’s incomparable art.

3. “I have never painted a self-portrait. I am less interested in myself as a subject for a painting than I am in other people, above all women.” – Gustav Klimt Paintings.

   In his lifetime, Klimt (1862 – 1918) was known to have an exceeding love for two things: his home country, Austria, and women. Klimt was known among art circles as something of a womanizer (fathering at least fourteen illegitimate children), and it was this extreme admiration of women that motivated both his philandering and his artwork. The former, of course, eclipsed the latter, and today we have Klimt’s wonderful oeuvre of gilded and intricately adorned ladies.

   The names of the models and other women in his life do not always survive, partly because his most famous lover Emilie Flöge burnt much of his correspondence after his death from a stroke in 1918. One who has been identified by chance only recently was Hilde Roth, a beautiful Bohemian redhead from Budapest whose face can be seen in Lady with Hat and feather Boa, 1909.

4. We are looking forward to an inspiring 2012! What do you predict will be your biggest inspiration this year?

   The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to evaluate the state of things and look forward to a new start. Whether 2011 was the best year yet or you’re happy it’s dead and gone, we can all welcome new opportunities for great things to come. A wonderful new year’s “resolution” could be to focus on the creativity inherent in our surroundings. In nature, music, conversations, facial expressions – art is truly everywhere you look.

   Nobody can predict what 2012 will hold, so why not create your own reality? Get inquisitive about life, work hard for the things you love, and look around plenty of the time to appreciate the beautiful things in life. Happy New Year!

This is it! We hope you will continue to enjoy reading our ArtCorner blog in the new year and come join us on facebook for more artistic discussions!

Mark Rothko managed to make viewers burst with feelings just by looking at his simplistic illuminating bands. He didn’t care about the color theories, or what the critiques say about his images. He sought to bring out of the viewer’s soul emotions of fear, love or hate. It is said that there were people who actually cried just by looking at his color associations. Some may say that the artist’s powerful passions for his creation may have charged the works of art with the painter’s emotions.

So how did Rothko manage to bring such feelings to the people who viewed his paintings? In the countless letters, he wrote in his life, Mark Rothko reveals his secrets.

Rothko used the entire spectrum of color. However, he tented to a particular hue depending on the phase through which he passed in his life. For example, in the mid-1950s, he preferred bright reds and yellows instead of dark blues or greens, which he used towards the end of his life, when he was rather depressed. Rothko usually mixed his paints himself. On the untreated, unprimed canvas, he brushed a thin layer of binder into which color pigments had been added. He then fixed this foundation with oils, which he allowed to spread around the unframed edges of the painting. Over these, Rothko applied overlapping color mixtures. These mixtures were strongly tinned. This is why their pigmentation barely adhered to the surface of the picture. The procedure gave his paintings transparency and luminance. The technique continues with the applying of the color layers. Rothko used to lay on the pigments with very light and fast brush strokes, by imagining that the colors were inserted into the painting. Thus, he created a symmetrical underlining that offered him the possibility of juggling with colors. More to say, Rothko gave a dramatic air to his paintings by creating a tension of contrast. Therefore, the colors sustained each other just by their association, their effect on the viewer as by the tension of fixation, which Rothko described as tragic.

From 1949 to 1956, the artist painted almost exclusively in oils, using mostly vertical formats. The sizes of the canvases exceeded 10 Feet in height. Rothko explained his choice in large-format paintings by making the viewer to stand to a certain distance in order to feel inserted in the atmosphere. “I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them, however – I think it applies to other painters I know – is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place a stereopticon view or with a reduction glass. However, you paint the larger picture, you are in it. It isn’t something you command.” Rothko made his paintings in order to be viewed from a certain distance, 45 centimeters. In this way, the viewer would feel inserted in the fields of color, which gave him certain feelings, of anger or happiness. This is why some cry at the pure glimpse of a Rothko painting.