Exploring WikiArt

Every child is an artist.
The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

--Pablo Picasso

WikiArt, aka WikiPaintings, is one of the best references for learning about painters and their work I've found.  One of the most useful features is being able to see how an artist's work evolved. You can find a specific artist by name in the alphabetic list or search using the search box in the upper right corner.

Take, for example, Pablo Picasso. The page that loads when you select his name has 3 tabs: Artist; All Artworks Chronologically, and All Artworks by Alphabet. Below his self-portrait there is a slider with featured works arranged chronologically. Under the chronological tab all of his works are presented in a matrix and at the bottom of the page is a slider with all of this works by date. Picasso produced an amazing total 1127 works. Any work listed can be clicked for a slide show of larger images.

Also on the main page for Picasso is a list for access to works by style, period, series, genre, and technique. Each category opens to its own slider.

Perhaps the best known painting from Picasso's early years is his "Portrait of the Artist's Mother," painted in 1896.

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Picasso, Portrait of the artist's mother (1896), WikiArt

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In his Blue Period, he painted "The Old Blind Guitarist."

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Picasso, The old blind guitarist (1903), WikiArt

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Perhaps his best-known work of all is "The girls of Avignon," painted in 1907. It marked the beginning of his cubist period and a personal turning point. Camille Paglia in Glittering Images says that the 8 foot by 7.6 foot painting was considered "the most important painting of the twentieth century." Its original title is "The Demoiselles d'Avignon."

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Picasso, The girls of Avignon (1907), WikiArt

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This little introduction to WikiArt touches only the tip of the iceberg. According to Wikipedia:
"They claim to have reached 75,000 paintings, as of June, 2012." ... "The developers are based in Ukraine." The WikiArt Blog gives a Financial Report for 2013.

-- Marge

Artists' studios online

The original idea for this post was offering information on webcams in artists' studios.  Apparently the idea is passé, since most of the links found were broken or hadn't been updated for a long time.  Ustream/art does offer some current live studio feeds.

Two exceptions to the lack of accessible webcams are Ai WeiweiCam (has an interesting back story) and Damien Hirst's site, which features timelapse videos taken in his studio.  I guess watching art being created realtime is as interesting as watching paint dry (if that's a pun, it was intended).  Here's a link to one of his works being created, "Monochromatic Sectors from Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Colour Ring, Dark Centre."

Weiwei's studio cam story goes like this: Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Installs Webcams in Studio. Twenty-four hours later, China Pulls Plug on Artist's Webcams.  However, it looks like his cam page is still live (but slow) and it offers his twitter feed.

It seems the majority of artists have moved to YouTube.  While I was looking around, I found some interesting stuff about painting techniques.  You can take a look at what I found in this playlist.  Here's a sample, one by pdranitsin:

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-- Marge

I can do bad all by myself...

...is a movie written, produced, directed and acted in by Tyler Perry.  You may know him better as Madea, the pistol-packin' mama.  To me Perry is a perfect example of artist.  He took a difficult early life and transformed it into works that speak humanely (and with great humor) about this stew we live in.

From the article about him in Wikipedia --

Around 1990, he moved to Atlanta, where two years later I Know I've Been Changed was first performed at a community theater, financed by the $12,000 life savings of the 22-year-old Perry.[10] It included Christian themes of forgiveness, dignity and self-worth, while addressing issues such as child abuse and dysfunctional families. The musical initially received a "less than stellar" reception and was a financial failure. Perry persisted, and over the next six years he rewrote the musical repeatedly, though lackluster reviews continued. In 1998, at age 28, he succeeded in retooling of the play in Atlanta first at the House of Blues, then at the Fox Theatre. Perry continued to create new stage productions, touring with them on the so-called "chitlin' circuit" (now also known as the "urban theater circuit") and developing a large, devoted following among African-American audiences. In 2005, Forbes reported that he had sold "more than $100 million in tickets, $30 million in videos of his shows and an estimated $20 million in merchandise" and that "the 300 live shows he produces each year are attended by an average of 35,000 people a week"

His website is nicely interactive and beautifully designed and there he invites visitors to interact with him.

Below are videos from some of his works (he's definitely prolific).

A trailer for "I Can Do Bad All By Myself:"

A second trailer, this one for "Madea's Witness Protection:"

A video from his scapbook of funny moments:

And a song by Gladys Knight from "I Can Do Bad...:"

Simply beautiful.

-- Marge