As we roar into March, the rumored Fantasy/Fairy Tale Challenge is mere weeks away from being unveiled. In the spirit of said challenge, my Friday Favorites will begin to swing towards art that falls into those categories. It is a broad challenge, and the art I will showcase for you will reflect both new and classic works that fall into the realm of the fantastic. I promise you a wide variety. Today I bring you the art of Raymond Swanland.
Viewing the above image, Mimic (one I believe I’ve posted before if it looks familiar), with its gorgeous butterflies, reminds me of spring. The oranges are the fires of autumn and yet I view the image and I think of the genesis of growth, and life, and creation…the foundations of spring. Please join me in inaugurating March with the work of Raymond Swanland.
Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth.
~Charles Kingsley
Chivalry. The word conjures up images of knights castles, honor and winning the heart of a fair maiden. Today’s Friday Favorite will focus on the works of Edmund Blair Leighton and John William Waterhouse, two amazing pre-raphaelite painters whose work is among the best classical art in existence.
The first image, The Accolade, is easily my very favorite image of the pre-raphaelite period. For me it embodies the spirit of the romanticism that we associate with medieval times. My brother and his family have a print of this hanging in their living room and, as I always do when I am visiting them, I spent a great deal of time looking at and thinking about this wonderful image.
I had to take a break from the classics to share the fantastic creative work of photographer/artist Thomas Allen. Valentines Day, with its lurid reds and pinks, has always been a bit burlesque to me as an adult so it seemed fitting for the Friday Favorite of Valentine’s week to involve the melodramatic, sensationistic art of pulp fiction books.
Unfortunately I am having intermittent internet access on the home front and it has not been working for me this morning on my home pc to finish the Friday Favorites. Cable Co. is scheduled to come out Tuesday morning. In the event that I can get online this weekend I will certainly get on with my February Friday Favorite plans. And now back to your regularly scheduled “Thank God It’s Friday” activities…
(Cover for the 50th anniversary SFBC edition of The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester)
Today’s Friday Favorite features the exquisite paintings of Donato Giancola. His work deserves to be seen at the largest resolution possible, so if you click on each picture you can see a larger version. Like many of the artists featured here weekly, the work of Donato Giancola needs no explanations to justify its beauty; no emotion-laden speeches to inspire a connection. Of course that will not stop me from sharing why I find his work so incredible.
