Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Artwork of the month: Maxfield Parrish and Skyrim

I have been playing the video game Skyrim a lot lately.  And just to make a connection between fantasy paintings and this fantasy game, I give you Maxfield Parrish.

First off, Skyrim rocks.  An HD video game with 5,000+ hours of digital escapism hunting dragons. Seriously Skyrim just rocks and dragons have the best treasure.


Skyrim was released at midnight 11-11-11.  I know that because I was one of the geeks at GameStop in uptown Minneapolis for the midnight release with the rest of the entertainment hungry flock.

As to Maxfield Parrish, I have never really liked his subject matter, albeit his technical skill at rendering realistic and painterly works is nearly unmatched in art history. I love the way his work appears as if it were a silver gelatin print. This painting is at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts where I spend way too much time, but not nearly as much as I have spent playing Skyrim lately.

Maxfield Parrish
American, 1870-1966
"Dream Castle in the Sky"
1908, oil on canvas

"I don't know what people find or like in me, I'm hopelessly commonplace! Current appreciation of my work is a bit highbrow, I've always considered myself a popular artist."
-Maxfield Parrish

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