Archive for the Picture of the Month Category
Isabel by Bob Venosa
ROBERT VENOSA January 21, 1936 to August 9, 2011
We thought we’d choose this one by Bob Venosa as picture of the month since Bob Venosa finally lost his battle against cancer recently having confounded the doctor’s for eight years by defying their “you’ve only got a couple of months to live Mr Venosa” predictions and carrying on for eight years. Bob Venosa, inspired by Dali to a large extent, was a great painter. Bob Venosa’s wife said, “The great Venosa left his body on Tuesday August 9, 2011 at 6:56 PM.” Robert Venosa’s famous works of visionary art paintings inspired countless artists. To see more, click here.
Thor in 3D – Wow! Thor the Norse god, Thor the comic hero and now Thor the film star!
The THOR film is literally magnificent. The special effects for THOR are the best yet. Asgard looks stunning and is still based on the artwork from when Jack Kirby drew Thor at Marvel comics some 60 years ago (The Mighty Thor). The storyline is not the original Marvel Thor comic book origin story but what they have done with it works very well. Anthony Hopkins is fabulous as Odin and the other characters are well cast. My only gripe would be the modernisation of Thor’s Asgardian language. Thor speaks a little in the Old English style he had in the Thor comics but it kind of gets forgotten later on and Thor ends up saying things like, “Well, maybe I had it coming” and that seems rather odd. Thor and the other Asgardians do seem a bit too human for the most part but these are minor gripes for what is one of the best Marvel adaptations so far. THOR is certainly on a par with the Spiderman and X-Men films. The Destroyer, resurrected from the Thor comics, is totally awesome and far outstrips the Thor comic version. Yep, thumbs up – go see THOR, especially in 3D!
- Book of Merlin by Alan Lee
The classic picture shown on the right here is towards the end of the story of King Arthur’s life by TH White and a wonderful depiction by Alan Lee of both King Arthur and Merlin. This beautiful painting, well actually a combination of drawing and watercolour painting, was reproduced as a fine-art limited edition print that has always been popular. The detail in the picture is incredible and really evokes the whole scene so well. This was of course drawn and painted prior to Alan Lee’s rise to fame with the Lord of the Rings trilogy that earned him such high awards. When you look at the quality of his drawing and painting it is not surprising. Actually, it is more surprising that it took so long for the general public to become aware of such talent. But then we always seem to rate our film and pop celebrities way above our artists. That perhaps says something about our modern culture or a lack of it. At any rate, it is quite certain that Alan Lee’s work will be enjoyed as long as there are people on the planet to enjoy it and will be an inspiration to many future artists. Why not click the comments button and tell us what Alan Lee’s art means to you?
To see more art by Alan Lee click here.
A wonderful painting by one of the best up-and-coming artists in recent years to grace the virtual galleries of Artists UK. You’ll find her section here and this one is in the sub-section of larger signed prints. There’s also a fabulous print called ‘Noel’ that makes a great Christmas gift.
The War Spell by Ed Org
This amazingly beautiful pencil sketch has just been published as a fine art limited edition print limited to only 850 copies signed and numbered by the artist Ed Org. Like all his pencil sketch work it is finely detailed and tremendously evocative. No wonder his fame is growing by leaps and bounds. There are very few artists in the genre to compete with him in terms of composition or technique. There are prints available now to suit practically any pocket or wall space from the small moon faerie sketches and countryside themes to these medium sized prints right up to the enormous ‘Wife of Lleu’ that despite its size and price is still one of his most popular works. If there is a list of current artists in the fantasy genre whose work is most likely to be viewed very favourably in the future and become extremely collectible then no doubt Ed Org must be well-placed on that list. You’ll find more examples of his excellent artwork here.
