Les peintures nostalgiques et l'esprit des films noirs

[mothwing]

In search for the most realistic oil painting of an open book I have ever seen (of which I had a postcard which I lost. Buggeration. It was by a German artist and probably over two-hundred years old. But I have really no idea whatsoever, and you can imagine what a search for "Book" and "oil painting" got me...), I stumbled upon two artists I really like - Jack Vettriano and Francine Van Hove.

I don't really know why, something about their paintings just appeals to me and makes me go "Pritteeh!" It's something between the situations they draw and the style which is - just pritteeh. Not fancy or mind-blowing - simply pritteeh.

Jack Vettriano:

His paintings, safe for this one and a couple of others, have a fairy-tale like unreal atmosphere about them which I really like. Here's one example for that:


I mean, where are these couples? Is that the sea? And "Dance me to the end of love" - that title is really a kitsch overload, but the picture is pretty nontheless. Pritteeeh, as I said.

Oh, and the man's from Fife, by the way. Fancy that.

and Francine Van Hove:

Loooook at that apple! And the hair! And the way she's holding that book! Really works for me, for some reason.


This woman is obsessed with reading and sleeping people, seriously. And naked women, curiously. She's drawn some of the most amazing sleeping people I've ever seen, too. Van Hove is a Parisienne.

Comments

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

Of course she is obsessed with naked women, who isn't?
Firstly, they are sold well. That's the not so good plus-point.

But the other one is....they are looking just great.
Female bodies are already some kind of art, they are wonderful.
There is so much interesting to be painted about them...

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Good point, actually.

Although there's sadly also a lot of crappy stuff with naked women exactly because they sell well. TV ads, for example. Try finding one without a naked woman in it. Or a housewife, for that matter. I hate TV.

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

Same here, I really dispise TV.
I am also hurt whenever I see that they hung up an advert of 3mx5m at the bus stop that is used daily by the students of five schools that adverts...the Penthouse magazine.
Riiiight.
I am actually very sensitive on the whole subject. I don't feel at all appreciated as a woman and treated in a way I deserve it.
It's also a shame that women are today still not able to travel alone in certain areas and that female pornography is present EVERYWHERE, as is the topic of rape(!) at 3 pm(!!!) in TV, while you see no male pornography anywhere or anything else that could be intersting for women.

Oh well. I better stop now or I'll start crying and my mood will be spoiled for the rest of day.

And why do all adverts for tampons, sanitary towels (in the US it is called sanitary NAPKIN, get that?!?!), panty liners or anticonvulsant medicine always seems to say that women are like "ill" once a month? As if there is something wrong with them that they are ashamed of and need to hide? AS if women, come one, all of us know that, just drew the short straw at the time of men (ahem!!!) humans being created.


*sigh* Need. to. Stop. now. Or I will get that angry that I will get angry at Julius, too, for being a man and thus being an asshole....*sigh*


The one good thing I always try to keep in mind is:
The girls on Sports TV, penthouse magazine, play boy or other "art" are doing this willingly and probably even earning loads of money.
They are not all victims.

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

despise TV...whatever.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Well, it's debatable whether they are victims or not. Same as a friend once told me that I was being oppressed because I'm a girl and studying literature and want to be a teacher because I happen to meet the cliché. She said it was because I was being suppressed because girls are taught that they're better at languages than at sciences and therefore I'd ended up where I am now. Well, I did see where she was coming from, but it's just not true in my case. I'm a rebel in my family because I'm going to be a language teacher, seriously.

It's the same with our terribly wannabe-mature twelve-year-olds who wear revealing clothes. They WANT to, but at the same time no twelve year-old would do that if not told that girls have to do that by the media, because you can't be a girl if you're not trying to be sexy (because they are not girls if they aren't. Simple as that.) so they're not exactly victims, but they're also not equipped with a good bullshit radar.
I don't know about the penthouse pets, but I guess it's the same kind of decision with them - they earn good money that way, but I doubt it would be their chosen profession if female flesh wasn't such a mass market. Or think of those private webcams where girls strip for money at home online. Are there any men doing that? Not that many. But females are cheap and available and "want it as well".
I wouldn't really call them victims, because it's their decision, but it's a heavily media influenced decision.

And all those TV ads in Germany can't be like TV ads in, say, the UK. I mean, their views on women do not seem to be much better from what I've seen, and I doubt that they've got the highest rates of hubbies staying at home with the kids, but at least their telly ads are not as ridiculously oriented towards stay-at-home Mums gushing with enthusiasm for cleaning, cooking, caring for her adorably incompetent husband and her angelic kids. And the dog.

I mean, take the Toffifee ads. I stopped buying them because it annoys me SO much that this Mum STAYS AT HOME while her husband goes out and has fun with the kids, and that they offer her, at the end of the spot, to come with them next time, because she has provided them with yummy food.

Or all those Sagrotan ads. "I want to protect my family from germs!" Because her husband, shown as the most incompetent cook on the planet in the ad, definitely is not able to use a cloth and clean up after himself?

What really vexes me - the media can't even be blamed. Those advertisement vampires get their ideas from the market they're working for, otherwise they wouldn't do that, and it seems to work, otherwise they'd have changed their strategies. But they don't. That must mean that there are still people who think like that. There's also surprisingly little on business women with a family who are seen as positive.
They DID try to give the stay-at-home Mum more respect ("Familienmanagerin", "I want to protect my family from germs" = woman as the hero who saves them from the evil guy in this spot, the germs), but there are only a few ads which show men in caring positions.
Apart from the Knorr Fertigsaucen TV ad and the Kinder Pingui ad. Those are my heroes.

Good thing we know that women are different from that, better, smarter, stronger than that, and men less stupid, less incompetent, and able to clean up after themselves. Don't be angry with Julius. :)

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

It's the same with our terribly wannabe-mature twelve-year-olds who wear
revealing clothes. They WANT to, but at the same time no twelve year-old
would do that if not told that girls have to do that by the media,
because you can't be a girl if you're not trying to be sexy (because they
are not girls if they aren't. Simple as that.) so they're not exactly
victims, but they're also not equipped with a good bullshit radar.
I wish people were born with that, at least in some version that can be upgraded from time to time. I want children to be able to be children, but I can't stand most children and almost all teens because of that. Bull shit is one thing, doing it another, and the affects on other persons by them being bull shit it the worst.

mean, take the Toffifee ads. I stopped buying them because it annoys me SO much that this Mum STAYS AT HOME while her husband goes out and has fun with the kids, and that they offer her, at the end of the spot, to come with them next time, because she has provided them with yummy food.
Dito. I hated that, too. What a fucked up picture of a family.
The mother of Nimm2 who thinks that children "can't be raised without sweets" is about as stupid and belongs to the same group of bullshit. Other topic, same kind.


What really vexes me - the media can't even be blamed.
It's crazy isn't it? It seems we ARE like that, I mean like, you know...TRUELY!!! I think I'm going to sink into depression now...

Good thing we know that women are different from that, better, smarter, stronger than that, and men less stupid, less incompetent, and able to clean up after themselves. Don't be angry with Julius. :)
Yes, luckily we know that, and Julius knows it, too. He is the best man ever (and my father is that, too!).