Exotic Art and LifeStyle :: Romantic Paintings of Exotic Destinations

Exotic Art

Pina Colada In light of most impressionist paintings, this work shares that same spontaneity and airiness of bright sunlight. Loose and sketchy, the free and playful brushstrokes are consistent with the carefree attitudes of people at leisure.

What makes an impressionist painting striking is the dance of vibrating colors and the staccato of broken patterns of tone and form, and how the viewer's eye blends them optically.

The idea behind the short, broken brushstroke is to keep the intense and pastel colors from getting muddy and dull (which usually happens when you try to blend opposite colors with too many brushstrokes). Painting with a palette knife allows you to keep this from happening if you do it the right way.

It takes a thorough understanding of tonal values and foreshortening, perspective and color theory to really develop an impressionist style.

The best impressionists such as Joaquin Sorolla, Isaac Levitan, Edward Potthast, Claude Monet and Anders Zorn---just to name a few---all mastered a 'darker palette' of academic/classical painting and drawing first, before naturally developing their own brand of impressionism.

Crystal Princess Over the years, I looked at all kinds of great paintings in books, museums and magazines and I was exposed to a lot of religious art. I've seen tons of pagan art, tribal art, classical scenes from mythology and the Bible, and so much more in illustrated books.

Like most of the Classical painters and sculptors before me, I am fascinated by the idealized beauty that we all relate to gods and goddesses. Crystal Island really presents a perfect platform to paint these classical figures.

So I created magical Fountains of Youth in Crystal Island, where your personal 'odyssey' builds up to more high adventure. This is where you can explore the idealized beauty of ageless, timeless classical characters such as Venus and Mars, Leo and Aquarius, Cupid... with swooning lovers bathing in the background to complete the picture.

The crystals are symbols of magic and positive energy, good luck and serendipity...so the Force will be with you. It's all in the theatres, Disney, Las Vegas...Hollywood. The modern mythology of luminous Crystal island exudes escapism, energy and vitality.

Bedtime Story This destination showcases my search for classical and international vintage art. There are hints of Japonisme and the Aesthetic Movement, Art Deco and Impressionism, and lots of Escapism.

We will discuss all the different schools and the great artists that contributed to each major style---in another section with the codename: Studio Articles. This covers the strange but colorful reasons and intent for creating art, how to ideas and lifestyle strategies. We'll touch on these ideas as you cruise the images. Some of these reveal fun and amusing stories that sparked the idea behind the painting---and the things I went through to make it happen. These articles will grow with the BLOG and I will keep building on them, so drop in anytime.

You'll find that my art style development incidentally follows the same course as art history: Classical to Impressionist to Art Deco to Contemporary Art... Pop Art...but before all this, I was painting billboards, did illustrations and graphics...and now the Web.