Which non wildlife artist inspire your work? (1 Viewer)

I hope I'm not being too nosey asking this one but I am curious. We have had a wildlife artist post so which is any non wildlife artist?
Who inspires how you work, what you work on or why you do it?

Ooh good question! I think there are many artists out there that I find very exciting, and I suppose anything you like ends up inspiring at some point. I suppose all the classics, Dali, Turner, Monet and Picasso. For colours and vibrancy, Gauguin was hard to beat, Cézanne was a sheer master of composition. I think my absolute favourite artist however is Paul Nash, an entirely underrated guy who was a war artist during WW1. His pictures of terrifying scenes in which there is a beauty that draws you in are stunning. It's the same sort of reaction as the child smiling at the pretty mushroom cloud in all those nuclear holocaust films, before being vaporised. Nash is an artistic Lorelei.

I remember discovering one of his original signed prints on display at Wolverhampton Art Gallery (my hometown), I let out an audible shriek of delight!

nickderry said:

Ooh good question! I think there are many artists out there that I find very exciting, and I suppose anything you like ends up inspiring at some point.

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Yes, as Nick says, a great question! The funny thing is that you can go through so many periods of inspiring art and artists. When I first started doing abstract art as a child it was people like John Marin, Franz Marc, Kandinsky and some other artists that did a sort of representational abstraction.

Then I went toward people that more thoroughly rejected representation or took greater liberties with it, people like Picasso, Matisse, the Abstract Expressionists. Both Picasso and Matisse influenced me as well I think just as examples of tremendous creativity, in line, color, composition, subject matter.

When I was in college I also studied a lot of art history and during that time people like Giotto, Piero della Francesca, as well as the Impressionists, who I'd never liked before because they seemed too pretty, and Degas and Gauguin, and in America Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove.

Probably my last abstract influences before I turned to representation were people like Stuart Davis, Fernand Leger and maybe Mondrian. I loved the bold, jazzy feel of their paintings.

And yet all along I've loved quiet but seemingly honest painters like Chardin, and Fabritius(?), a sort of humble straightforward representation, but not a highly fiddled realism.

For me the oddest thing, especially here, is that I'm really new to bird and wildlife art. So I keep discovering wildlife artists I'd never heard of. That has been a great revelation. Two other artists that I forgot about, especially in their watercolors, are Winslow Homer and John Constable. My guess is that more than any other artists they have an influence on my newer bird paintings.

And thanks to Nick for mentioning Paul Nash. Someone else to explore. I think I've heard the name before but I've never really looked at his paintings.

And I'm sure I've left out some people who had a huge affect somewhere along the line.

Also the late great Sir Kyffyn Williams, he managed to put the bleak wetness of Wales in all its grandeur and beauty right there on canvas. I feel I'm just going to be throwing names into the pot here, but why not.

I recently discovered Edward Seago. I am trying to improve the landscapes that support my birds but not overly photographic realism. Seago's watercolor landscapes are marvels of simplicity but look very real--impressionistic realism(??) Also very impressed by the acrylic landscapes of Robert Genn (living), a Canadian painter living in British Columbia.

Sid

I forgot too to mention the influence of modern California painters, especially people like Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff and David Simpson, the last two of whom I studied with. Diebenkorn and Bischoff were once part of Bay Area Abstract Expressionists, who combined the painterly and expressive qualities of Abstract Expressionism and representation at least for awhile. And they were fiercely independent of Eastern/NYC art.

This independence I think was a great influence. I loved Diebenkorn's use of light both in his completely abstract and in his representational work. That light to me represents California. I didn't know it before I moved there but I think its appeal has stayed with me long after I left California. My friend David Simpson does very simple but also sensuous work on a Mondrian-like structure but with very soft, layered rich colors. I think his use of color has always influenced me and made me think that a painting can be primarily about color.

As I said earlier we often have many, many influences. And who knows how each of them affects our current work. But I'm happy to have the opportunity to mention some of the artists whose art work has inspired me over the years. It's pleasant to recall all of their great work.

Now it's just as much fun to be discovering so many 'wildlife' artists whose work isn't really that visible in the world of art that is studied and taught at colleges. Eventually I hope my work combines some of all these influences and inspirations.

AND, Mosca, who are your favorites? Just don't mention my old pal, Mr. Duchamp please.

Too many to mention...but off the top of my head...Monet...Bacon...Turner...

Whilst away recently i couldn't resist purchasing this print from a Cuban artist...i visited his workshop and his work was quite incredible....[plus...he was a very nice fellow too]...

Maybe not to everyone's taste....but i love it....

Well solitaryVSong, I did wonder if my absence of information would be noticed.

I agree with a lot of names already mentioned, thought there are definitely some worth exploring on that list too.
I don't have a definitive list but there are artists I keep going back to like Francisco Toledo, L.S Lowry, George Grosz, Baselitz, Lee Miller, Joseph Beuys et cetera but I also like things like Zilij (arabic tileing) cave art, folk art and everyday doodles.

I will have to add more later but that will do for now

Tough question as there are too many to mention. I love the work of Swedish artist Anders Zorn (who was a great influence on Bruno Liljefors), and one of my other favourites is John Singer Sargent. I left school vowing never to paint another still life... but then I saw the Chardin exhibition at the RA and went straight home to paint a still life! Sometimes one particular piece stands out: I don't usually like Renoir's work much but his Piazzo San Marco was just jaw-droppingly good, and if I could only ever own one painting it would probably be that one.

Nice to see another Chardin fan. I remember that I always liked seeing his work, even in my most abstract days.

By the way I didn't realize Carel Fabritius was also a http://www.artcyclopedia.org/art/carel-fabritius-goldfinch.jpg bird painter. I really don't remember much about him, just that I was struck when I first ran into his work and was surprised that I'd never heard of him. For all I know it was this one bird painting that struck me so much many years ago.......

I know that picture - I remember seeing it somewhere in a library book when I was like 8, I haven't seen it since. That is a genuine living bird (in tragically sorrowful circumstances mind).

nickderry said:

I know that picture - I remember seeing it somewhere in a library book when I was like 8, I haven't seen it since. That is a genuine living bird (in tragically sorrowful circumstances mind).

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You've a much better eye than I. I didn't notice that chain! Still a striking painting. I wonder if it's not one of the earliest realistic bird portraits in Europe?

solitaryVSong said:

You've a much better eye than I. I didn't notice that chain! Still a striking painting. I wonder if it's not one of the earliest realistic bird portraits in Europe?

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plenty of pictures with Goldfinches exist, I think Bosch was one of the first, this is definitely one of the first that shows a GENUINE living bird.