Artists I Admire

The advent of the Internet has provided a tremendous opportunity to look at artwork and artists that was previously unavailable (it’s also a great way to waste time). There are many artists and illustrators working today that I admire, and I spend a good deal of time looking at artist’s web sites and blogs. In fact, I make a daily visit to the blogs of James Gurney and Tom Richmond. In addition, a group of professional illustrators maintain a collective blog, “Muddy Colors,” that I cannot recommend highly enough. I suggest that anybody interested in art visit these blogs as a daily dose of education and inspiration. Another web site I’m fond of is conceptart.org. There’s tremendous content and learning going on there, but some of it is certainly “adult.”

For inspiration for the type of art I aspire to do, and the type of art I enjoy, I look to a few modern icons such as Frank Frazetta, James C. Christensen, William Whitaker, the Brothers Hildebrandt, Scott Gustafson, James Gurney, and Boris Vallejo. From there, I look back to the giants of the recent past: N.C. Wyeth, J.C. Leyendecker, Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell, and Howard Pyle. I find many artists to admire from the 19th century back to the Renaissance, and from the Renaissance back to ancient Greece.

Modern Art

I find little to admire or to aspire to from the group of so-called “modern artists.” I attended the classes at college, listened to the lectures, watched the slideshows, took the notes, wrote the papers, and took the tests. I wasn’t  convinced, and simply don’t care for it. For me “modern art” seemed to be more of a desperate search for the unique  and original, but ended up as simply the production of the weird and grotesque. I find it to be incredibly overrated, and worst of all its producers and admirers often made it their mission to denigrate the traditional and representational art of their brilliant predecessors as a defense of their own misguided productions.

Education
There is a movement of those of us who recognize the destructive influence of the modern art movement and working diligently to rediscover that which was nearly lost through 100 years of artistic confusion. An Internet search for “Art Renewal Center” or “atelier method” will locate studios and art schools throughout North America and Europe that develop young artists in the traditions and methods of the great masters.

An exploration of conceptart.org will locate other art education opportunities, as will schoolism.com. Another online resource is the Folio Academy, developed by artist Will Terry. The educational videos from this site may be downloaded and cover a variety of subjects like drawing, painting, and cartooning. The videos are made by many different artists, so a variety of styles and approaches are taught. This site demonstrates the power of the Internet and provides an opportunity simply not available just a few years ago.