Your Paintings IPlayer - Part b - Be the Audience

Your Paintings IPlayer - Part b - Be the Audience

IPlayer has posted a series called "Your Paintings" on which they talk about dead and alive famous painters paintings and show you a little more insight into the meaning of the painting.

In Episode one they talked about Henri Rousseau, LS Lowry, Andy Warhol, Paula Rego and Joseph Wright of Derby.

The first artist they talked about was Henri Rousseau .

Henri Rousseau lived in France and never made it out of that country. He used his imagination to paint things like tigers and jungles. 

The painting they talked about was called "Surprise". 

Henri Rousseau lived near a botanical garden that's where he knew what a few of the tropical  plants looked like. Also the only time he saw a tiger would have been in a zoo or a stuffed tiger.

He had an amazing imagination. 

I like him and his art because, even though he had no idea what any of this looked like, he used his imagination to create the scenes he painted. 

 Joseph Wright of Derby

The next artist i was interested in was  Joseph Wright of Derby. 

In the Victorian days Science and Art were two things that didn't mix. 

But Joseph loved science and he painted. 

So he painted a painting which was a sciencey scene, with a scientist explaining to some people about how the planets worked. 

He painted the sun as a lamp and the people watching have there faces slightly into the light possibly signifying being drawn into the light of science. 

I like him because he went completely against the grain of the time by combining art and science. 

Paula Rego

When Paula Rego was a little girl she was afraid of the dark. When she went to bed someone told her stories  until she fell asleep. 

When Paula grew up she got her friends to dress up in different costumes and pose with random objects until she had an idea that would start a story for one of her paintings. 

Paula loves it when someone stands in front of one of her paintings and makes a story out of it.

I like her because hers paintings have stories attached to them and she doesn't tell you what it is so that you have to make up the story for yourself.