Night Orchids

Brian Clarke is an artist who paints orchids, among other things. I am disappointed by his work, because I think that it obscures the natural biological beauty of orchids for the pursuit of abstraction.

This is an orchid:



This is not an orchid:

I dislike this portrayal of orchids because it makes them look like 1) flowers cut off from their stems, unattached and removed from their biological functions and 2) formless blobs instead of pristine geometric structures

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The way I see it, art can have only two purposes: adding aesthetic value to the world, or saying something. Art is a very inefficient medium for sending messages, language is far better. It takes a rare person to manage to say something with art that couldn't be better framed better with words. Even Picasso's Guernica would probably be better as an essay (although less influential, probably.) Because of this, artists should maximize for aesthetics. Brian Clarke fails at this. His art is ugly and uninteresting.

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  This painting (bottom) looks like something one might find in a hotel room or restaurant. Why should we classify it as high art? It's name is "Site Plan."
  
  The one above it (top, formatting is problematic on this laptop) is titled "Is this a Dream?" Well, I certainly hope so.
  
  The middle one is a "Self Portrait." Sorry, Brian Clarke, but your face is boring AF
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Ilion

The artist I'm covering in this blog post is not a professional one, but I've seen his/her art on the Internet and I really like it.

From https://sunriseonilion.wordpress.com/

The art is of a hypothetical alien world called "Ilion." These are "red plants."





I think this is extremely creative and I love the art style, which mimics old taxonomic drawings by scientists.



These are "fruits!"

Chuck Close

Chuck Close is an American artist who work in the media of paint and photography

Many of his paintings are quite large. Often, they are so realistic they look like photos:



This technique is called photorealism.


I prefer his paintings that don't quite look like photographs:



In this painting, you can still see some of the qualities of the paint.

He also has done paintings with dots:









His work is especially remarkable because he is now partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.