Fine Art – Splendid Isolation

Sometimes, I wonder why we bother trying to create any new art at all, when it’s not only been done, but been done better. In my wanderings along the Intertubes, I happened upon this little Art Deco piece:

It’s called The Swing, and was painted in the 1920s by Georges Barbier.

Alert Readers may recall that there’s been another artwork on the same topic (and title) featured on these pages, to whit, the one painted by Jean-Honoré Fragonard back in 1767:

Sorry, but I prefer the rococo playfulness of the later over the spartan coldness of the former — and I love Art Deco, generally speaking. (For those interested, I talked about the Fragonard piece here — note the post date.)

That’s not to say that Barbier is a bad artist, of course. Note La Jambe (“The Leg”), for instance:

I’m not generally into sketches, but I’d have that one on my wall in a heartbeat. And his Le Grand Décolletage (“The Backless Dress”) is absolutely brilliant (and the man’s expression is priceless):

See what I mean about Now And Then? That “fashion” is very popular nowadays with celebrities; but they did it back then too, and better withal.

Everyone owes it to themselves to visit the South of France, especially the Provence and Louberon areas. There’s something different about the place, and not just the architecture and scenery: even the light is unlike anywhere I’ve ever been. When you see artwork as painted by Cezanne and Van Gogh, you look at the light and think that the golden tint that diffuses the scenery is unrealistic or even fake, but it isn’t — it really does look like that. (It’s best visited in summer, by the way: winter has a different light altogether, as I discovered when I toured the area with Longtime Friend Knob a couple years back.)

Anyway, all that is to introduce an artist I’ve never seen before (introduced to me by New Wife, by the way), who apparently specializes in painting scenes from the Midi: Laurent Parcelier is his name, and here’s an example:

Painting Artist Laurent Parcelier at WOoArts

This one serves as the wallpaper on my laptop as we speak.

Here’s another:

Yes, that’s exactly what the sunlight looks like in Provence — I’ve seen several places that could be carbon copies of the above.

You can find some of Parcelier’s other works over here. Unusually (for me), I like just about every single one of them.

Enjoy browsing. And the website, WOoarts.com, has some other interesting artists as well.

Category: Fine Art

Now And Then

The Midi