Exploring

It's finally Summer. Actually, Summer break is more like it since I'm out of school until August! After this week I'm going to get to work on some ideas that have been brewing. I really want to try painting on different surfaces like wood or maybe some found objects. A girl in my painting class brought in some rocks she painted, so I tried it and it's a really different feeling- very cool ( kind of a new obsession... I used to be a little bit of a rock collector/hoarder). I'm excited to explore new surfaces and work on some of the new painting techniques I've been learning.
I like looking at paintings from the past and present, and seeing the progression of art and what there is to glean from the different time periods and styles. The last post I did I put up pictures of some awesome current artists, so here are some of my favorite paintings from the past...

Edgar Degas- Dancers (1899)

Jan Vermeer- The Girl with the Pearl Earring (c.1665)

Gustav Klimt- Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907)

Gustav Klimt- The Kiss (1907-08)

Leonardo Da Vinci- Female head (La Scapigiliata) (c.1508)

 Claude Monet- Fishing boats leaving the port of Le Havre (1874)

Mary Cassatt- Autumn (1880)

Albert Bierstadt- Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California (1868)

Albert Bierstadt-A Storm in the Rocky Mountains- Mount Rosalie (1866)