Tag Archive for "Artwork Articles"
Every once in a while there comes along a really new style in art and rock, goth and metal bands have often been the first to pick up on the new art and commission the artist to produce a cover for their latest album. Very often the art is so associated with the band that more than one cover ends up being done with the same artist. This was not, in fact, the first cover commissioned by Paradise Lost from celebrated artist Dave McKeane but possibly it was the best. It was also the last one as they changed their style musically and artistically quite radically after this album. Probably the earliest artist-band symbiosis and also the most long-lived one was that between landscape surrealist Roger Dean and the progressive rock band YES (although Roger Dean did plenty of covers for many other bands too).
If you are looking at the cover for Draconian Times above and puzzling over the name of Dave McKeane and wondering why it seems familiar (possibly because you have been living on the planet Pluto for the last ten years or ended up on this blog by mistake whilst looking for knitting patterns) then Dave McKeane was the artistic genius behind the covers for Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics and the designer for the incredible film Mirrormask. If you love McKeane’s art then you must see that film! It is to large extent Dave McKeane’s art come alive and it is wonderful to see his creatures come alive like that.
Returning to the Draconian Times cover, the music, providing it is a genre you are into, is excellent. The first track Enchantment has the most incredible melody that seems so familiar that you feel you must have heard it before. No-one here has managed to figure out where it comes from if it is not original though. Any guesses? There was a large poster of the artwork of the Draconian Tiomes cover produced by the record company but sadly they’d all disappeared before we could lay our hands on any of them. Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all …
Dave McKeane art here
Another first from Artists UK DotNet! If you are an artist (or even if you’re not) perhaps you have had a piece of artwork, painting etc (or several even!) reported lost or destroyed by a publisher or manufacturer with no evidence. Or maybe the artwork or painting was just plain stolen from your house or exhibition. Whichever it was, at Artists UK DotNet we are offering a free listing service to help in the recovery of such items. Someone out there must know something! Our new section for these listings is here.
This may be of particular use to artists who did not have artwork returned by publishers in the bad old days before the legal requirements came in to do so. Of course, it may be that the current owner has no idea that the artist was never paid and that the artwork still belongs to them. It may be that they acquired it through perfectly honest means as far as they know. But maybe they would feel uncomfortable enough to part with it or make some form of payment if they knew that it had not been legitimatelyacquired from the artist.
If your painting or artwork was stolen then it must be somewhere, someone must know something and the Worldwide Web must be the best of all possible places to try to reach that ’someone’. There are no guarantees so that is why we do not intend to charge for this service. What have you got to lose? Send us an email with as much information as you have and preferably a small jpg image of the painting or artwork that will come up around 3″ x 4″ on the screen. Make sure you tell us when and where the painting or artwork was lost or stolen as also who might be interested in owning it (so we can include relevant words in the listing to pick up on searches through search engines). We’ll also need your statement in writing in the email that you are the legal owner of this painting or artwork. If you are prepared to offer a reward for the return of this painting or artwork then please let us know how much.
We hope this new service will be of use to artists and art lovers in recovering their property. If you have any comments or suggestions about all this then please click the Comments link and tell us what you think.
Lily Maid of Astolat by artist