Top 10 Favorite Paintings:

1: The Japanese Footbridge. It’s hard to pick a favorite Monet, but I guess this is my favorite of my favorites. He has a lot of “oh, look, flowers…and a bridge” paintings, but I like the vibrant greens of this one best.

2: The Kiss. Gustav Klimt’s use of color and intricate shapes is great. This painting seems simple but complex. And I’ve always liked that, to me, it looks like she’s wincing and trying to get away.

3: Starry Night. It’s hard to limit myself and not put mostly Van Gogh paintings on this list, but this is probably my favorite. It’s used ALL THE TIME, but no matter how often I see it, I never get sick of the swirls.

4: Agapanthus. I know, another Monet so soon. But I absolutely love the blend of colors in this. It looks like you *might* be able to pull it off with fingers, but one little overuse of any one color would throw it off.

5:   The Veteran in a New Field. The title gives this all the meaning. It’s a very simple picture of a man facing a field as he supports a scythe (my back hurts just looking at it) instead of a gun. It SAYS a lot, maybe especially because of the simplicity of the actual painting.

6: I and the Village. This is pleasantly weird to me.  There’s an odd symmetry to it with the geometric shapes, colors, upside-down-ness… and a goat. I’m also pretty sure I wrote a paper on this for a college art history class.

7: Exploding Raphaelesque Head.  What’s an art list without a Dali? I like weird. I really like weird that inspires my own creative juices to slop around. This one’s particularly cool to me because it takes known art and goes one step more by breaking up the head like a liquid explosion.

8: Cafe Terrace at Night. Another Van Gogh. This one’s always made me want to be there. It looks calm, cool, and exciting all at once. (I also like it because of a personal bit of nostalgia for that time I covered a print of this in zombie figures for Halloween.)

9: The Procession to Calvary.   I love the richness of the colors. And everywhere you look, there’s some emotion behind what the people are doing.

10: Death and the Maiden.  I forget about this one, by Schiele. Then I see it and it’s freshly creepy and sad and cool all over again. Looks like a mummified painting, to me.