Just in case anyone out there wants them (I’ve had a question here and there on it), I saved a number of my art pieces as computer downloads.  They appear on my website’s navigation, and they include:

• Wallpaper: Art of Russell Dickerson
• Wallpaper: Asylum
• Wallpaper: Bloodspawn
• Wallpaper: Brian Keene’s Scratch #1
• Wallpaper: Brian Keene’s Scratch #2
• Wallpaper: Brian Keene’s Scratch #3
• Wallpaper: Ghosts
• Wallpaper: Join Us
• Wallpaper: Plastic
• Wallpaper: Surreal
• Wallpaper: Visions

Feel free to download them and use them on your computer, and your work computer, and your friend’s computer, and…

Ok, so my “little break” was more like a couple of weeks.  Add “extreme coughing from the lungs” to “Post-Las Vegas” and there you go. But I’m back, and this one is an interesting one for me.  It’s one of the first art pieces that I really took something from, especially in the extreme emotion.

This is Il’ya Repin’s Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581 (1885, oil on canvas, 79″ x 100″). The artist based it on a real event, involving (natch) Ivan the Terrible.  In the heat of an argument, Ivan stuck his son with his staff, mortally wounding him.

Repin used a very nice composition here, with very little in the background to steal your attention.  The foreground is a fairly nondescript rug, with little furniture in the room either. The only furniture that you can really see is knocked over, adding to the drama of the moment.  I like is the posing of the characters too, there’s little life left in the son, but he hasn’t passed on just yet.  Ivan is holding his son tightly, and holding his hand across the wound, as if trying to hold his son here on earth as long as he can.

Along with the composition, Repin brought the contrast into only the center of the piece, leaving the rest of the image to fall off into the darkness or into similarly colored areas.  There’s a strong sense to me that the light is actually knocked over, as the shadows that are being cast seem to come from a low spot.  It adds to the drama of the scene, and to the desperation in it.

The palette of colors he uses works well, and he put it in just the right spots.  Red is quite primary in the image, but it sits mostly around the exterior of the image. It’s almost a frame of red, surrounding and even highlighting the blood on the younger Ivan’s face. Your eye is brought right to the blood in the center, and right to the shock on Ivan’s face, a face of madness and horror.

Though certainly, without an actual photograph of the event, there’s no real way to know what happened in that moment.  But Repin has captured a believable emotion perfectly, as Ivan is hit full bore with the realization that in his uncontrollable rampage he has killed his own son. Ivan’s face shows the full horror of his actions, a perfect rendition of going too far, and realizing that you can never take it back.

Opinions?

Russ

I’ve thought about it, and not only are these posts fun but they help me grow as an artist.  In it, I pick an image from past art and give out my thoughts on it.  I’m not really an expert (though I have actually had the classes), and what I say is merely how I feel about the work.

Please let me know your thoughts on the art or other comments, and I will also be posting this on my MySpace blog as well. So, without further ado, here is the first of the new incarnation of This Week’s Art.

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This Week’s Art 4/21/07 – Grimshaw

This is John Atkinson Grimshaw’s A Moonlit Evening (Oil, 25.5 x 46 cm, 1870’s), one of my favorite pieces and a great one to start with.  For me, it’s a very inspirational piece, as it has everything I look for in a work of art.

For one, the layout of it.  Grimshaw did a fantastic job here of highlighting exactly what was needed, and leaving off details where none were required. The detail of the outer edge of the piece helps bring your eye to the softer, more open center. The placement of all of the pieces in the work is perfect, as everything leads your eye exactly where Grimshaw wanted it.

It also radically uses color, something Grimshaw often did that is stunning here. The green is startling, but somehow isn’t as shocking as you would expect.  It lends an air of the fantastic to the work, and yet because of his subtle uses of color here and there it isn’t disturbing.  Quite the opposite, the green somehow is soothing, despite it’s very abrupt feel.

Above all, as in many of Grimshaw’s works, there seems to be a story to it.  We aren’t privy to it (ok, maybe I’m the only one who isn’t), but there is a strong sense that there is something going on here.  Is it the longing of the girl to go home?  A fear of going back? A girl just stopping for the view?  It’s a great piece that keeps you interested in it far after your initial look at it.  Like all great art pieces, it gives you an emotional reaction, one that sticks in your thoughts.

Opinions?