If Norman Rockwell Painted Sci-Fi

And no, not a runaway little kid Luke Skywalker at a lunch counter next to an Imperial stormtrooper, but stuff like this:





More here.

I don't recall Norman Rockwell featuring kids in his work much.

No matter. Charles Wysocki was a better artist.

Yeah, he never did.











It looks like roughly a 1/3rd of his paintings featured kids.

Wow! ONE THIRD.

Oh well. I was never a big fan.

Charles Wysocki was better.

At least, and that's just looking at the images in the google search, without bothering to count them. It could be much higher.

Oh yeah, because this:



Clearly, has more artistic merit than this:

That kid on the diving board could have been me the day I had to pass my swim test.

Meh. I'm not going to tell someone their opinion about art is "wrong" because art is so subjective.

Knowing Dayton, though, is it any surprise that he'd prefer Wysocki's simplicity to Rockwell's subtlety and nuance? I'd be more shocked if his preference was reversed.


As for me, give me Rockwell. I was first exposed to his work as a child when Reader's Digest printed many of his works on the back cover of their magazine. I fell in love with it immediately.

I can recognize the artistic ability and merit of someone, even if I'm not a fan of their work. I don't care for most of Prince's output, but I'd be the first to admit that he was an insanely talented artist and performer.

Interestingly, the two largest collectors of Norman Rockwell's work are Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. I found that to be a bit surprising.

Personally, if I was going to pick a commercial artist from around that era, I'd have to go with Maxfield Parrish.

Why are you apparently deriding simplicity? What makes subtlety and nuance better than it?

I'm not deriding it. I'm pointing out that given your nature, it's not surprising that you'd prefer that kind of art.

And what is that supposed to mean?

The cool thing I appreciate about Craig Davison's paintings of his childhood memories are the expressions on the childrens faces. I would have to do some research, but it seems most artwork of children has them smiling or appearing still which seems unnatural. Funny because when I first looked at these paintings it seemed unnatural to see the expressions the way they were.

I like Thomas Kincaid as well.

He had a rather sordid life, it seems.

There's lots more at the link.

I knew all that.

But his art was very good in my opinion.

The best artists are the ones who can reduce something to its essential essence, like the person who painted this girl.

That's pretty good gturner.

Your mother must be proud.