TOBY TALKS ART.
Like most people I like some art, but not all types of art, some of it is just pretentious nonsense.
I mean, piles of bricks, dead sharks, rooms full of flashing lights, come on, be serious you are just having a laugh and seeing what you can get away with, right?
On the other hand some people will be taken in by anything, lets face it, you are at this very moment reading the musings of a tangerine called
Toby.
Anyway let me tell you about the sort of art that I do like, you don't have to like it, but I do.
Impressionism.
Developed in the late 19th century in France and influenced by the realism and classicism movements, the impressionists tried to capture the impression
of a scene using light and colour in new ways.
Impressionist paintings are characterised by short visible brush strokes, often colours are applied in very small repetitive dabs, the blurring of movement is included
and often bold bright colours are used, but they convey very little detail.
On the left is our impression of an impressionists, impression of Toby, hopefully you are impressed. As you can see the picture is constructed of very small patches of light and colour
capturing the impression, but not the detail of Toby himself.
Neo impressionists were less sure about the movement and evolved a slightly less radical approach, they were concerned about the permanence of the compositions.
The figures in neo-impressionist works are defined more conventionally, so Toby in this example would be slightly less stylized, not life like, but slightly more realistic.
The Pre Raphaelite Movement.
Founded in 1848, the Pre Raphaelite movement was the result of a group of artists, namely William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais,
and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, disapproval of in their opinion the formulaic style of the time, strongly influsenced by the works of Italian artist, Raphael (1483–1520).
They criticised the too perfect, idealised style of the Raphael influenced work, arguing for a more realistic or truthful depiction of the subject matter.
The Pre Raphaelites painted more lifelike, accurate, realistic pieces, influenced more directly from the subject in front of them and less filtered by populist
style or expectation.
They used the full spectrum of colour and light available to them and shock horror even painted landscapes outdoors on site!
The Pre Raphaelites painted mainly religous or romantic scenes and are closely linked with many paintings depicting beautiful young women,
more often than not with long flowing hair, as depicted in the pre Raphaelite style portrait of Toby shown to the right.
In the late 1850's Pre Raphaelite art changed its style through the works of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, who brought a more dreamlike
quality to their works.
The movement had a lasting influence for example the use of light effects used in open air landscapes employed by the impressionist school of the
1870's, as mentioned above.