Favourite paintings

I've always had a love of art, studying it at school, and later at art college. Can't paint now, as my wrists make my hands too unsteady, but it doesn't stop me loving fine art.
Thought I'd share with you some of my favourite paintings. I'll warn you though, I'm not one for realism and the old masters.


First up is Jack Vetrianno 'The Singing Butler'. I love the sense of wind and cold and movement. It's also quite a romantic notion - dancing on the beach, while the butler sings, and the poor maid catches her death of cold!



My friends Pat and Peter (The Old Black Dog, Uplyme) have this hanging in their dining room.

Next, we go to Salvador Dali, but not one of his surrealist weird things. This is 'Christ On The Cross Of St. John'. This used to hang in one of the classrooms at my school, and, although I'm not a Christian, it has always had a profound effect on me.............


Edward Hopper - 'Nighthawks'
If ever there was a picture which depicted loneliness, it is this one. Most people have seen it, but few know what it is - either in this form or one of its many parodies.



And talking of parodies, this is probably the best-known of the 'Nighthawks' parodies. This is Gottfried Helmwein's 'Boulevard Of Broken Dreams'. Again, the sadness in the picture is almost tangible.


Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and James Dean - all great talents sadly missed.

More later.............................