Posted on 04/06/2012 8:34:22 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Thomas Kinkade, the "Painter of Light" and one of most popular artists in America, died suddenly Friday at his Los Gatos home. He was 54.
His family said in a statement that his death appeared to be from natural causes.
"Thom provided a wonderful life for his family,'' his wife, Nanette, said in a statement. "We are shocked and saddened by his death.''
His paintings are hanging in an estimated 1 of every 20 homes in the United States. Fans cite the warm, familiar feeling of his mass-produced works of art, while it has become fashionable for art critics to dismiss his pieces as tacky. In any event, his prints of idyllic cottages and bucolic garden gates helped establish a brand -- famed for their painted high lights -- not commonly seen in the art world.
"I'm a warrior for light," Kinkade told the Mercury News in 2002, alluding not just to his technical skill at creating light on canvas but to the medieval practice of using light to symbolize the divine. "With whatever talent and resources I have, I'm trying to bring light to penetrate the darkness many people feel."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Those are all Kinkade parodies in #27, and there are more of them on the net.
According to Google, your shutterbug was Carlos Miller, a Miami multimedia journalist who has been arrested three times for recording cops in public
, to quote his About Me. Attaboy, Carlos!
Now, as to which I'd want to frame and hang, that's a hard question. Do I want a high-contrast image with bright colors and literal truth or a a low-contrast painting reflecting an artist's interpretation? It would depend. Both are neat.
You tell me, what kind of a person kicks a well-known and generally liked artist that is known for talking about his work and his faith in the same context, the day its reported he dies?
You objectively tell me how that looks.
He wasn’t painting “for the dregs,” he was painting to make cash off the dregs. He was a huckster who sold “collectibles” that in reality were worth a fraction of what he was selling them for. Sort of like those gold coins that Franklin Mint tries to pawn off at outrageous prices; the suckers who fall for it later find out they could have bought a regular bullion coin for a fraction of the cost with a higher resale value.
Ping to painting #3
It might be poor form to say someone's art was nothing more than commercial marketing on the eve of their death but it was not a nasty comment. It was the truth. Anyone that bought those painting bought into a middle class myth that it was valuable art.
Not trying to say anything nasty myself, just defending someone on FR that chose to speak the truth. FR used to be a place where you could speak the truth. The truth is that "art" is not going to go up in value.
Nice. And vastly superior to Kinkade’s pedestrian dreck ...
Painted by Heironymous Kincaid, I presume.
I love the P-38!
$45 bucks opening bid on ebay...no takers
Which he could easily sell without a National Endowment sugar daddy with a gun pointed at the taxpayer.
I like to paint and I would have loved to paint like he did.
So much for the appreciation value of my Beanie Babies.
:)
You'd be off to a good start at an 02138 cocktail party, probably with Granny Warren in attendance.
RIP.
Lights Out
Or maybe those people just liked the paintings?
Drango, you have the best tagline I’ve ever seen. Did you think it up yourself?
By Arnie Sloffman (Photographer of Filth)
Titled, “It’s a sunny day and the chapel is on fire.”
What a shame. He was perhaps the foremost painter of our lifetimes. I’d buy one of his paintings if I could afford it.
Some of the comments here are amazing to me. Sure there are better ‘artists’. Maplethorp was highly acclaimed and his work is more ‘valued’ than these.
So?
If people like these paintings, great. Personally I LIKE the fact they aren’t zoning code correct and that it looks like Bambi is just around the corner. To me, that’s WHY I like them. If I had an extra 700 bucks I’d snatch a copy off his Little Mermaid print. because I LIKE it, not that I want to invest.
As for the ‘cartoon’ aspect, I personally think that cartoon/comic/animation art/cells are some of the best art there is. I prefer it to the ‘classics’. Why? Am I some blind dolt with no appreciation for ‘real’ art?
Don’t care. I like what I like. Amazing how so many here are concerned with what others, who they only ‘talk’ to online, like though.
/rant ;)
I actually like the one of Lombard Street.
Where might one view your works of art?
Stole it years ago from the AOL. Feel free to use. It’s the internet.
Not unlike Hiernonymous Bosch's "Hell" period---
Don't even go there, Chuckles. You really have me jerked off at the moment.
--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
I like it Vik.
Always someone on here attempting to dump on those who can’t respond and or...
(And though she ain't dead yet, you can't criticize her either!)
Did they create a village in Vallejo that was patterned after his paintings?
Actually I live in a place like that in Oregon - extremely charming.
May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Is that one for sale? Now that is one I like.
Norman Rockwell he was not.
Reusability counts. In paintings as well as software.
As one of my teachers told me, "It's worth what people will pay for it." Kind of like a stock. Kinkade paintings were a bubble market that popped.
.
It's a shame how many people fall for worthless kitsch heavily marketed by the likes of Kinkade. There is plenty of good art around and many excellent starving artists, whom you could easily find at street fairs and in cafes where they display their work.And as for art appreciation there are free or low cost classes at community colleges that will teach you to discern good art from bad.
Which one?
Damn RC. You had me at the homeless New Orleans beer dude!
Compare Kincaid’s art to “modern” art. Even “modern” art from decades ago until now.
Kincaid is King of all Artists compared to any modern art.
My mother was into art, was an art historian, and I was around a lot of art, museums, lessons etc. I fancied that I liked modern art until when I was around 17 I went to a gallery and saw their new exhibit (this was in the late 1960s). It was a room filled with what looked exactly like oversized piles of dogs*** made out of white vinyl.
I walked out of the gallery and never wanted to rest my eyes on any “modern” art ever again.
what do you think of Al Hogue?
A shame for who? You?
If people like his work, wanna pay, so what?
What do you care?
“And as for art appreciation there are free or low cost classes at community colleges that will teach you to discern good art from bad.”
See, now I find it funny that some people are willing to part with cash based on some guy with a degree telling them something subjective, like art, can be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to begin with.
Good to who? Bad to who? Based on what? Opinion. Nothing more.
If I had the choice between two equal quality prints of the Mona Lisa and a Disney animation scene, I’d take Walter’s product 100 out of 100 times.
Because to me, The ML isn’t something I like looking at. And some idiot with a degree in subjectivity isn’t gonna teach me anything I can figure out all by my lonesome.
Some bad art is so bad it's good, though I don't count the dead man's efforts among those.
I like that top one.
great point
His work is truly great!
Wish I could create something so magnificent, his paintings are magical.
Those are pretty good!
I think I see Santy Claus in the one..
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