And why are we all so different in our opinions? One's man's meat is another man's poison ...so very true. Well, any vegan will tell you that. But when it comes to Life, Love and Art, we all act like vegans versus meat-eaters! We all have strong inclinatiosn and tastes, natures and opinions but for some strange reason, hate every elses and condsider our own take the only opinion worth knowing!.
Frankly I hate modern art. I don't understand crumpled beds and cows in formaldehyde and rubbish stuck together and I don't want to. Chiarascuro trees and seascapes and too many Madonnas with plump Christ babies can also be boring after about the 100th one. (Much as I loved Venice...there were too many Madonnas) I love paintings that make one stop and think,in which layers of meaning can be seen and felt. They need to have passion as well as beauty of detail, but even stark ugliness can be meaningful if it tells a story. The haunting themes of Goya's black paintings in the Prado, Madrid are an example. They express the artist's fear of madness and are deeply moving and haunting.
I am now going to be told how ignorant I am by hundred's of Tracy Emin afficionados. So be it. I've plenty to say in return - but in the end it is just their taste, their opinion versus mine. Who is to say which one of us is wrong? No one. Who actually lays the rules. No one and everyone. We have our own personal rules and I've outlined some of mine. I love colour, movement, a story, beautiful women and men, myths. mediaeval themes as well as classical. That's why I love the Pre-Raphaelite painters so much and I let my characters express all these personal feelings in The Crimson Bed. Some will say I have no taste at all because I love such vivid, colourful story-telling. Yet these pictures are popular, enduring, deeply loved by many men and women who have similiar imaginations to my own.
BTW, I have just read an article by Richard Dorwent written for The Telegraph 29th June 2009 on John Waterhouse for whom he has little regard it seems. He sees Waterhouse as merely pretty and lacking in the passion of the great Pre-Raphaelite masters. And it's true that Waterhouse was not a true Pre-Raph. being born while they were just in the throes of their own artistic beginnings. To some extent, I agree with this viewpoint of Dorwent's, but at the same time, I love Waterhouse because his pictures, while lacking passion perhaps, have a quality of movement and flow and femininity that has made them some of the most appealing images of the day. I chose one of his paintings The Crystal Ball for my book cover because I love the richness of colour and the thoughtful stillness of the pose.
Anyway, that's my opinion.
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