To ask - who is your favourite artist and why?

[Findawaytobehappy]

Just that really. Do you have a favourite artist? Or style? And why does it sing to you?
Only got in to art a couple of years ago and feel like a whole new world has been opened up - so would love to know who else I should be learning about.

I love Anita Klein for her joyful pictures of women.

Oh, and for another current one - Fréderic Forest. Simple, clean line drawings, but there's something so soothing and sexy about them.

@HollowTalk they are BEAUTIFUL.

Oh great thread. Will post again later!

Lowry - my grandparents were from Salford too. I would like to go up there to see the Lowry museum.

Dali.
Escher. I finally managed to track down a print of Phosphorescent Sea and it hangs in my living room. It gives me an enormous sense of peace and restfulness and I could look at it for a very long time. And the story behind it also inspires me.

@Horsefeather

Oh how lovely, both the exhibition and Venice!

I must say I haven't enjoyed a thread so much for ages, it's such a wonderful distraction to think of Art for a while

Mary Stork, love her stuff, i have quite a good collection now.
Favourite picture ever is John Wells, Sea Bird Forms - the original is in Tate St Ives, I have a print that I could get lost in every time I gaze at it - so calming.
Barbara Hepworth
love lots of Paula Rego's work too -

shop.tate.org.uk/wells-sea-bird-forms/johwel1501.html

Lots - for different reasons:
The still lifes of William Nicholson are just beautiful- the light and reflections and colours
Vermeer
British Realism from the first half of the 20th century is a current fascination- Laura Knight, Gerald Brocklehurst, Meredith Frampton, Winifred Knights.
Norman Whitehead - who had the potential to be great
Stanley Spencer
Mabel Frances Layng
Joan Eardley
Lucian Freud

Vermeer - we have a couple of prints on our bedroom wall, but I think 'Lady writing a letter' is my favourite. His paintings really draw you in.

Edvard Munch - we visited the Munch museum in Oslo and both fell in love with 'The Yellow Log' - a print of that is also on our bedroom wall.

Elbow.., ived loved all the their early work.
My dad died and then they brought out seldom seen kid so are used to brush my hair and dry it to 1 day like this pretending it was a guitar

And portraits by Gainsborough and Romney.
Mr Finch's insects

Think you want the Best Video thread IanHislop!

Oh I love that Ben Nicolson "Still Life", SurferRona. Thank you for that.

@Jespers
Paula Rego - she's a under-rated, bad ass, genius of a painter.

She is indeed. She has a show on in Edinburgh at the moment - it's great. Very odd gallery but her paintings are outstanding. I'd never realised how BIG they were for one thing.

My favourite artists in no particular order: Barry Winsor Smith, Jean Giraud (Moebius), Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Wally Wood, Winsor MacCay, George Herriman, and Georges Prosper Remi - all men, I'm sorry to say, but all insanely talented creators whose work is instantly recognisable and all important shapers of popular culture. You'll know their work even if you don't know their names. Georges Prosper Remi, for instance, is better known as Hergé, the creator of Tintin,

@ MrsTerryPratchett she knows Vermeer. And knows what she likes. She picks the good ones (doesn't like the Nightwatch, good girl!).

I thought The Night Watch was by Rembrandt...

@honeyloops You mean Ellis O'Connor's paintings? They really are beautiful. I have two now - I asked my children for them for Christmas. I want a collection!

My brother has been named on this thread - he's also my favorite

@LuluJakey1 - huge Mr Finch fan here!

Anselm Kiefer - so moving and unflinchingly prepared to confront difficult issues. Seeing his work in person, it just is so powerful.

@LuluJakey1, incredible to find another Mister Finch fan among the Mumsnet microcosm. I have many (!) pieces of his work! Did you manage to get to the Sculpture Park exhibition?

Ah, grannyshark, how wonderful. Shan't beg you to name him in case it's outing, but I'm agog to know.

I was chuffed to bits as he doesn't rate himself highly, I've sent him the link to the thread

Maybe Botticelli - like a breath of fresh spring air after too many Madonna and childs and annunciations.

Favourite portrait is by Maggi Hambling

www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw07497/Dorothy-Hodgkin

But ... it's got to be David Hockney for his Dog Paintings series.

(They are fairly directly responsible for us getting a dog and then deciding heck, we could go for a baby ... art can have unexpected consequences)

I've always loved Cézanne, and some of the more abstract work of the South African artist Pierneef.

Forgot to say why.

Cézanne's landscapes make me feel like I'm on holiday under sunny skies, with the promise of fresh bread and olive oil at a table in the shade.

Pierneef... Not sure. But for some reason they remind me of Cézanne.