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Week 94 Inspiration From Artist : WT Blandford Fletcher and Norman Rockwell.
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What an incredible and talented artist. He could certainly capture human emotion and bring you right along into that story. I have really enjoyed reading about him and taking a look at all of his paintings. A real joy to look at such talent.
Posted
NORMAN ROCKWELL 1894-1978.
Born in February 1894 to a well off family in New York, Norman was described as a thin, poorly coordinated and pigeon toed boy who could not compete with his peers on a physical front, but used his drawing skills to entertain from a young age. As he grew, his physique became less important to him and as he said, ‘ I drew and drew and drew’.
In 1910 he enrolled at the Art Students League, founded in 1875 it was considered the most liberal and exciting art school of its day. Here he studied the ‘construction, the swivel, hinge and arch of body movement, the contraction, rest and extension of muscles’.
Rockwell’s subject was everyday America and he captured decades of history through wars, depression, the civil rights movement, space exploration and the first flight across the Atlantic.
Aiming at capturing precise detail, he went to great pains to create locations, collecting costumes and props as he worked. It is said that he liked both the people he painted and those he painted for. He began with full sized charcoal drawings, followed by painting in oils.
A full time artist at 18, his first big success came at age 22 when in 1916 he created his first of many cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post, at the time the most popular and prestigious publication in the US. He went on to produce numerous covers for the Post over nearly five decades, and also designed for many advertising campaigns, from toothpaste to Parker Pens.
In 1943 a fire destroyed his studio building and many years worth of paintings and props which he had collected over the years. In the 1960s he moved to work for Look and did start using photos for an aid-memoire, and was required by Look to produce different work with a more social view of changing times. There is a Rockwell Museum in Vermont.
I love his work because of his skill and humour.
Triple self portrait.
Going and returning!
Hope you like them. He produced so much work I could go on, but hopefully you will choose some more!
Triple self portrait.
Going and returning!
Hope you like them. He produced so much work I could go on, but hopefully you will choose some more!
Posted
A brilliant artist with a wonderful technique. Some believe he painted America as how he wanted it to be. That's fine by me, there's enough grief in the world. A treasured possession is a large book of his marvellous artwork.
Here's a painting he made when segregation was stopped in schools...tumultuous times...
But it's his everyday, often humorous work that he's known for...
He used a lot of specially posed photo reference...
Some people are dismissive of him...'just an illustrator'...'kitsch'...etc, etc. I think he was an extremely gifted artist, his work still has influence today. So for me...a great artist.
But it's his everyday, often humorous work that he's known for...
He used a lot of specially posed photo reference...
Some people are dismissive of him...'just an illustrator'...'kitsch'...etc, etc. I think he was an extremely gifted artist, his work still has influence today. So for me...a great artist. 
Posted
Superb artwork, I do get annoyed at the comments that were and are made” well he’s or was only an illustrator “ some of the only illustrators are the finest artists . They also without intention encouraged thousands of young people to sketch, paint etc I’m one of them so for me a illustrator is a Artist who works on books and magazines etc, Norman Rockwell is one of the finest . Thank you for you excellent introduction and for the wonderful work you have chosen. I wil have a closer look and pick some out .
'Breaking Home Ties', quite poignant, and tells the story so well in the faces and the detail.