Pre-Raphaelite Art; Contemporary Symbolist Art influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in a variety of mixed media by Howard David Johnson.

BELATED PRE-RAPHAELITE ART; Images of Beautiful Women in the spirit of and heavily influenced by the Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood: The artist has spent a lifetime creating belated Pre-raphaelite Art. With a background in traditional media including oils, pastels and colored pencils, Howard David Johnson embraces leading edge digital media in the creation of his depictions of fantasy, folklore, mythology, legend, religion, and heroic history. Please be patient while the images load...

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Contemporary Pre-Raphaelite & Symbolist Art Gallery

New for 2008! See "The Lady of Shalott" (left) displayed large below...

21st Century Pre-Raphaelite Art Exhibition; Homage to the Masters...

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Since the times of the ancient Greeks, Art History records a relentless quest for Realism and artistic excellence in realistic paintings and sculpture. The masters of each generation strove to perfect their craft, then passed on the torch of their accumulated knowledge and skill to the next generation. The accomplishments and technological breakthroughs of one generation have often set new standards of excellence for the next.

Pre-Raphaelite n. An artist or writer belonging to or influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a society founded in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others to advance the style and spirit of Italian Painting before Raphael. adj. of , pertaining to, or having the characteristics of the Pre-Raphaelites. These English Romantic Artists reacted against the new industrial age with it's desecration of nature. The Pre- Raphaelites sought to return to a view of nature that had prevailed before the time of the Renaissance painter Raphael. They preferred to paint moral, religious, and historical subjects. Sentimentality, minute detail, and bright color characterize most of their works.

If you are not familiar with the original Pre-raphaelites or the subsequent generations of belated followers, you should probably go look at them first, before looking at a contemporary artist influenced by them. For a non-profit virtual art gallery displaying paintings from art movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries (for example, Symbolist, Pre-Raphaelite and Art Nouveau) visit www.artmagick.com.

This Gallery is for those of you who have seen all the originals and can't get enough and is lovingly dedicated to the original members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

"The Archangel Raphael" is my tribute to the Pre-Raphaelite Art of Edward Burne-Jones and is also inspired by the great Gustaf Moreau, Symbolism: I'm sure professional art history and spirituality experts will notice the ghost images of the Sephiroth tree in this image right away..

Enter a world of Beauty and Imagination...

"Helen of Troy" is my loving tribute to my favorite Pre-Raphaelite, John William Waterhouse and "Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra" is my salute to the great Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Jane Morris, his most beloved model...

his is my world. This is the world I love. It is a world without limits. My world is what I choose to make it. My world is yesterday, or today, or tomorrow. My world is a world of dreams & realities. It is a world of Caesars & Christs... of monuments rising from dim memories of the past. It is an angry sailing ship tossed about on a sea of adversity. It is a world of knights & ladies, of gods & monsters, of faerie princesses, femme fatales, & mythic creatures.

It is a world of beauty & virtue & nobility. It is a world with no boundaries save the limits of my imagination & my conscience. This is my world. Conceived in my mind & placed upon canvas with brush & paint & study & sweat & tears & a great deal of love for my world. My world is the world of the illustrator. I created this world for you, & for your children, & for your children's, children's, children...

Faerie Guardians (MMIV).jpg (68830 bytes)

"Faerie Guardians" 2006 is the artist's newest oil painting ( 20x16 oil on canvas) Featuring Shakespearean actor & model Jessica Spence as Titania. Because of the use of photography even Johnson's all-oil paintings can be termed mixed media. (Johnson's Pre-Raphaelite Art Books and Pre-Raphaelite Art posters are for sale following the exhibit...)

'The Lady Kriemhilde', 'The Fairy Circle' and 'Helen of Troy' MMIV were all rendered in Prismacolor Colored Pencils... 'Prismacolor Paintings' if you will - because this kind of picture is not at all what comes to mind when people hear the word 'drawing'. These relatively new soft oil based colored pencils are not the first Dry Painting Medium: the term 'Pastel Paintings' originated in the 17th century. The Prismacolors were also liquifed with solvents and applied with brush in certain areas. ( See the pencil version of Helen of Troy- a tribute to Master Pre-Raphaelite John William Waterhouse displayed large enough for close scrutiny at the very bottom of the page... currently it is being rendered in oil on canvas...)

Did you know that many of the breathtaking works of Pre-Raphaelite Art done in oil on canvas and panel in the 1800’s were declared not to be Art? Not just not fine art but not art at all. In London the Royal Academy had a very narrow view as to what qualified. No wonder Rossetti led a rebellion against them. The Rough treatment of many Pre-Raphaelite greats like the Hon. John Collier for what they termed "indecency" was unjust at best.

With a background in traditional media including oils, pastels and colored pencils, Howard David Johnson embraces leading edge digital media in the creation of his depictions of fantasy, folklore, mythology, legend, religion, and heroic history. He works in and mixes a wide variety of media * Oil paintings * Acrylic Paintings * Prismacolor Paintings * Drawings * Chalk & Oil Pastel Paintings * Photography * and Digital Artistry & Mixed Media * ALL HALLOWS EVE (Above) is a Prismacolor Painting & SLEEPING BEAUTY ( above) is an Oil Painting, While "The Lady of Shalott" (below) is a digital painting (AKA mixed media)

Original oil paintings are for sale, e-mail for info...

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*****

Thank you for visiting The Pre- Raphaelite Exhibition of 21st Century Artist Howard David Johnson...

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21st Century Pre-Raphaelite Art Exhibition; essays by the artist... "Over the last 300 years, ideas about female beauty have drastically changed and this has caused many of the most wonderful paintings of the old masters to seem 'ugly' to youthful modern audiences. In the days of Peter Paul Rubens, being forty to sixty pounds over-weight was considered not only attractive, but was a status symbol. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and tastes have clearly changed. These new visual art creations take their inspiration in part from the realistic paintings of the old masters just as The Lord of the Rings comes from The Ring of the Nibelung and European folklore, West Side Story came from Romeo and Juliet, which was in turn inspired by Antony and Cleopatra. Our shared cultural heritage, great works of art, literature, music and drama, cinema, folk tales and fairy tales are all drawn upon again and again by the creators of new works. These works in the public domain are both a catalyst and a wellspring for creativity and innovation. Even though all my Realistic Paintings are legally new works and protected under copyright law their inspiration sometimes comes in part from works in the public domain.
	The public domain is a space where intellectual property protection ( copyright ) does not apply. When copyrights and patents expire, innovations and creative works fall into the public domain. They may then be used by anyone without permission and without the payment of a licensing fee. My sources have been transformed so much in the creation of these new works of art that they would not violate an existing copyright even if they were so protected. Publicly owned national parks are also considered by many to be public domain lands. Because of the recent extensions of the terms of both copyrights and patents, and the privatization of lands and other resources owned by the Federal Government, little is now entering the public domain. Look for new litigation and another time extension when Disney Corporation's Mickey Mouse copyright is due to expire in 2023. Where would Walt Disney be without the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, or Victor Hugo? Where would Aaron Copeland have been without American folk music? Thomas Nast's Santa Claus without traditional images of Father Christmas? Picasso without African art? These are artists who made names for themselves and even fortunes through Public Domain appropriation, one and all.
Beethoven did "variations on a theme" with the works of Mozart for the same reasons I have done mine with Waterhouse- to learn and give homage to the artist who most inspired me. Since the public domain is a treasure trove of information and resources to be used by future generations, many advocates are concerned that its stagnation will make it more and more difficult for future generations to find creative inspiration.
Art tradition and etiquitte suggest the most influential should be mentioned at exhibits; these original new pieces shown in this exhibit take their inspiration in part from the paintings of Waterhouse, Alma-Tadema, Moreau, Bouguereau, Leighton, Ingres, Moore, Church, Parrish, Rackham and others. They showcase some of my favorite models. None of my work so closely resembles the inspiration as much as Helen of Troy: a deliberately obvious tribute to my most beloved master- John William Waterhouse; and is after his "Miriamne leaving the judgement seat of Herod" The interior chamber with it's domed ceiling, King Herod on his throne, the eight man judiciary council of the San Hedrin, the tablets of the law and many other details are missing and in their places many new things are added. In Helen of Troy, new elements include Grace as the model, her jewelry and gown ornaments, the view of the sea going off into the distance in a deep perspective, the bas relief carvings, the ivy urn, the sphinx head, the flowers, the new floor, and the polished marble columns. When all is said and done, only the stairs, the lion's body and the basic outline of the gown have not been changed beyond all recognition.
My Helen of Troy: the face that launched a thousand ships; shows instead her seeing the approaching sea lights of her husband Spartan King Menelaus' amphibious invasion fleet. (From Homer's The Iliad) As a student of fine art, copying is a great way to learn and create fine art, but as a professional illustrator copyright laws make things very different... My art is divided into two groups; personal work partially copying the old masters and professional illustration applying these lessons to create totally original works. I start more often with a specific written request. This is the exact OPPOSITE approach to creating a picture from copying something that's there. Research comes first. In the case of the Greek Heroes, ( above right ) there were no accurate sources in the public domain to copy correct Greek armour and weapons in combat poses from. Mostly I found images of effeminate men, wearing nothing but a robe over the shoulder and the wrong helmets. Finding history books at the library with the accurate helmets, shield designs, weapons, and armour was essential to get an accurate depiction of a Greek Hoplite. All the library had were stiff museum poses of anything. I hit the research jackpot with some very simplistic flat line drawings of great authentic Greek shield designs. All the elements must be found, gathered and assembled to create the dramatic action scene the client wanted. Next comes the layout. This is where the mathematics and geometric design enter the creative process. My wife Virginia took a picture of me nearly twenty years ago on a carpentry project with the heroic Kirby-esque pose I was looking for mixed with the texture and feel of a Frazetta or Rockwell painting. Naturally, in these cases I go to great lengths to make sure that my work looks nothing like it's various inspirations and sources except in spirit. When asked why I usually work from photos I like to re-tell Norman Rockwell's story about having to paint a chicken: He set it up on a stump in a barn and goes to painting. The chicken moves it's head. He moves it back. The chicken jumps down. He puts it back. He goes to paint. now the chicken decides to make a break for it... he chases it down clucking and screaming and puts it back. Now it knows he's going to have it for dinner and it goes completely berserk. The next day, he came in and set the chicken back, snapped it's picture, and the photo held nice and still." ~ Howard David Johnson MMIV

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Howard David Johnson is a contemporary visual artist and photographer with a background in the natural sciences and history. He works in a wide variety of media ranging from traditional oils, pastels and others to cutting edge digital media. After a lifetime of drawing and painting, Howard David Johnson's Traditional Realistic Art was exhibited in the British Museum in London in 1996, ( 3 years before he got his first computer ) as well as numerous American ones since, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His illustrations have appeared in every major bookstore and game-shop chain in America as well as magazines and educational texts around the world.

Some of his more prestigious clients have included the National Geographic Society, the University of Texas, the University of Cambridge in England, the History Book of the Month Club, Adobe Photoshop Auto FX, Universal Studios, Paramount Studios, and PBS TV. Oil Paintings, Colored pencils, Pastels, Mixed media, and Digital art can also be commissioned for select projects - Click on commission new art below... Working in a variety of traditional and cutting edge digital media he offers his customers a variety of options and more than thirty years of experience. As a commercial illustrator HDJ has not only used the computer but has been involved in the development of imaging software. On his existing works license offers start as low as $99.

2006 Artist's Statement:

A portrait of the artist in his painting studio as he is today. This July 2006 photo was taken by his youngest son Erich.

"Did you know that many of the breathtaking works Pre-Raphaelites were doing in oils in the 1800’s were declared not to be Art? In London the Royal Academy had a very narrow view as to what qualified. No wonder Rossetti led a rebellion against them.

How about Styles? Impressionism is a great example; It was not enough that these institutions rejected the work, but they felt the need to destroy the person’s reputation and livelihood.

Of course collectors pay millions for these Impressionistic paintings now, and Curators, Historians and Professional Art Critics all hail them as sensitive works of fine art. When Monet submitted his work to the Salon in Paris, they said" A monkey has gotten a hold of a set of paints" and would paint huge "R"s for "rejected on the back canvas.

Rejecting him was not enough for them. They wanted to be sure he never sold another picture. They wanted to hurt him and his family for sick sadistic pleasure. He got really good at re-stretching his canvas with a double layer to cover up their hateful defacement of his original art.

They saw themselves as powerful as the deadly committee for public safety in the French Revolution as far as the Art World went and delighted in "sending artists to the guillotine", so to speak.

These hateful little petty tyrants were unable to keep his name out of the history books or to keep his paintings for selling for millions of dollars. This is the treatment someone who creates a new style gets, but developments in applied technology like manufactured tube paints as opposed to hand mixed paints were violently rejected by these types as well and they forcefully proclaimed anyone who used paints from a tube was not a "real artist". Well, tube paints are pretty well accepted now. So will photography and digital media in time. You probably know how bad Photographers were treated, but now it is a respected Art Form. I Remember the hateful things they said about Pastels and Mary Cassat, and now Pastel Paintings are considered Fine Art and Mary Cassat’s works are regarded as masterpieces. Now that snobs have Digital Artists to look down on, Colored Pencils are starting to get some respect. Our day will come."

~ Howard David Johnson 2006

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Bonus Section:

STYLE and TECHNIQUE

"Those who are enamoured of practice without science are like a pilot who goes into a ship without rudder or compass and never has any certainty where he is going. Practice should always be based upon a sound knowledge of theory, of which perspective is the guide and gateway, and without it nothing can be done well in any kind of painting."

Howard David Johnson is a contemporary visual artist and photographer with a background in

the natural sciences and history. He works in a wide variety of media ranging from traditional

oils, pastels and others to cutting edge digital media. He loves mixing media. This site features

examples of his Realistic Art, including illustration, photography, experimentalism, and fine art

Click this image for more about The Artist

The Johnson Galleries exhibit many examples of his belated Pre-raphaelite Art, mostly beautiful serene women in fabulous flowing gowns inspired by Rossetti and Waterhouse, but he also does religious and historical themes. Since boyhood he has passionately copied the old masters, most especially the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. To create his work, he usually starts with a thematic concept followed by a pencil sketch, then followed by his photography, often traveling to find suitable scenes and locations and then working in his Photography studio with live models from his sketches. He then assembles a variety of elements which are realistic and original. As a boy he dedicated his life to art in 1960. From 1965- 1999 he used xeroxes and tracings to make his preliminary digital photo montages. This is patterned after the analog manner used by Maxfield Parrish and other 19th century notables. Beginning with a tracing, he then draws or paints from these complex original Digital Photo Montages. Many of these are on display on this web and slated for future completion in a variety of realistic traditional art media. As this happens, the finished work is substituted in the exhibit. For decades David has sought out the most beautiful models and brought them in for sessions in his analog photography studio. Using a strategy employed by J. W. Waterhouse, the old master David imitates most - his wistful and graceful models cannot be underestimated in their contribution to the stunning beauty and the potential for lasting appeal of his work.

His favourite medium for realistic art is colored pencil because of the high speed and low expense, and people began expressing difficulty in telling his colored pencil drawing from photographs in the early 1980's. In the last 35 plus years he has also mastered Oils, Pastels, Acrylics, Watercolors, Inks, Scratchboard, Gouache, Photography, and the highly controversial digital media. As a commercial illustrator Johnson has not only used the computer to create art but has been involved in the development of computer imaging software for Adobe Photoshop. Working in a realistic style inspired by classic illustrators David is deeply rooted and grounded in the Greco-Roman artistic tradition, Feeling that with realistic art, the human form is the ultimate arena for artistic expression. His lifelong dream came true when his Arthurian Pre-Raphaelite Art was exhibited in the British Museum in London England in 1996. In addition to this traditional media exhibit, his mixed media has also been displayed in numerous other ones since such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Having achieved international acclaim as a traditional visual artist he discovered digital media in 1999. Because of his passion for realistic art and photography he elected to embrace it and joyfully be a part of this historic era in the visual arts as a 21st century realistic visual artist.

Click this image for information about private art lessons

Since 1972 when he began his career as a scientific illustrator for the University of Texas he has earned his living illustrating all kinds of books, magazines, CD covers, and all sorts of games, greeting cards, calendars, portraits, murals and the like with his contemporary realistic art... HDJ's Realistic Art has appeared in every major bookstore chain and fantasy gaming shop in The United States and has been used in educational texts and magazines all over the world. This site features realistic Pre-Raphaelite paintings & pictures for the Twenty-first Century including some oil paintings, as well as lots of other exciting media such as colored pencil drawings, pastel paintings, acrylic paintings, gouache paintings, watercolor paintings, and pencil drawings, and also featuring studio, field, & aerial photography, digital painting and photo-montage and all these media mixed in an assortment of experimental combinations...Working in a wide variety of media to create his realistic art he offers his customers a host of payment and product options. He delivers the rights to these custom made copyright free illustrations and old fashioned customer service when he does work-for-hire. On his existing works his low cost license offers start at only 100 dollars.

*****

Personal Opinion Essays on Realistic Art yesterday and today by the artist.

Essay One:

"THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME..."

(A Brief essay dealing with attitudes toward Traditional Realistic Paintings, Pastels, Colored Pencils and Art Numérique )

In addition to his mastery of traditional media, Howard David Johnson now combines drawing, painting, photography, and digital media with more than thirty years of experience in these fields to create his 21st century Pre-Raphaelite Art in paintings and pictures. Did you know the Greek word "Photography" means "Painting with Light"? Today with the advent of computers it truly lives up to it's name. Due to developments in Art and Technology, a broader definition of painting is needed than that which is found in common usage. Announcing an exciting merger of traditional visual art and cutting edge technology... a new art form for the twenty- first century... Art Numérica is not limited to realistic art but also offers limitless horizons for everything from cartoons to abstractions. It is the most dramatic development in the visual arts since the Renaissance. In the words of Al Jolson in the movie world's first talking picture" You ain't seen nothin' yet!"

"Painting, in art, the action of laying colour on a surface, or the representation of objects by this means. Considered one of the fine arts"

~Encyclopaedia Britannica.

"Painting. noun. 1.) The act or employment of laying on colors or paints. 2.) The art of forming figures or objects in colors on canvas or any other surface, or the art of representing to the eye by means of figures and colors any object; the work of an illustrator or painter. 3.) A picture; a likeness or resemblance in shape or colors. 4.) Colors laid on. 5.) Delineation that raises a vivid image in the mind; as in word painting.

~ Webster's Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language

Pastel, Acrylics, and Colored Pencils combined

Snobbism in the arts is nothing new. Some people will tell you that oils are the only valid medium for realistic paintings. That Colored Pencil, Digital, and other Realistic Painting and Drawing Media are not valid for "real" art. Young artists, Don't let them bother you. Their forerunners used to condemn Pastels before they gained acceptance and called them "crayons" when Johann Alexander Thiele (1685-1752) invented them. Mercilessly disrespectful art critics of the time could not stop the Experimentalists no matter how viciously they attacked and derided them. "Crayon-painting" as it was called in England was practiced early on by persecuted pioneers in Switzerland and many other nations. What a debt we owe to these master artists who refused to knuckle under to the pressure of those short-sighted critics during those historic and experimental times. It took until 1870 with the founding of the "Societe` Des Pastellistes" in France that respect came at last to these heroic & immortal visual artists.

In England the liberation of the Pastellists from slight regard and undeserved disrespect came with the first exhibition of "The Pastel Society" at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1880. Pastel Painters like Mary Cassat and others from America and other nations forever silenced the snobs with their masterworks and gained recognition at long last for Thiele's invention as a valid art medium. I am persuaded that history will repeat itself. Like Pastels, I believe these wonderful new colored pencils and even Digital Realistic Art Media will one day receive the recognition they deserve as powerful mediums of artistic expression just as pastel paintings did. What is your definition of art? Have you thought about it?

Mine is: "anything that makes you feel or think."

Consider dancing... it can be a little skip in the step or rise to the level of the incomparable Russian Ballet. Did you know that just the materials alone for a single oil painting cost up to a thousand dollars these days? Even paying the artist less than minimum wage no one but the super rich can afford them anymore. Something's got to give. Realistic paintings in oil have been highly prized for centuries and the appeal and following of realistic art is undiminished to this day. Oil paintings featuring Abstract Art and Realistic Art are generally the most treasured form of all the visual art media and with good reason. But snobbish art critics favoring abstract art have declared that realistic paintings, or illustrations are not art for a century. With so many representationalist paintings by so many immortal master artists hanging in the Louvre, the Hermitage, and the British Museum and others I think the disrespect for realistic illustrators that dominated the 20th century is academically ridiculous as well as vain and intolerant, insisting theirs is the only valid opinion. What is your definition of Art? I believe almost any form of human expression can be raised to the level of "high art" especially visual art and Realistic illustration...

The detail reveals Realistic art and abstract art combined

By my own definition of art, which is: "anything that makes you feel or think" most abstract paintings are not "real art" to me personally, because abstract paintings usually neither make me feel or think, usually focusing obsessively on technique and avoiding any coherent content. I usually draw a complete blank mentally and emotionally when I look at them. In 1979 the Houston Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed a triptych of 3 giant paintings they paid fifty thousand dollars for- three blank white canvasses entitled "untitled". Then there was "The incredible new artistic Genius" with an I.Q. of 62 ...Congo the chimpanzee with his gala New York art exhibition...an elaborate prank played on the Snobbish American Art critics about a generation ago by research scientists in the field of primatology. Imagine how upset they were when he created one of his "ingenious masterpieces" right before their eyes.

( My Source for this is the Time Life Science Library volume entitled "The Primates". )

Art education has been almost completely removed from American Schools as a result of generations of this kind of fabulous nonsense contributing to America's cultural illiteracy crisis. Now, the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and even certain Pre-Raphaelite artists are being removed from school libraries. After generations of this, most American college graduates today cannot name even one living visual artist, abstract or realistic.

There is no way that mandating more math, requiring more reading, or scheduling more science will replace what we have lost as a culture.

What is your definition of Art?

~HDJ

*****

Note: Abstract Paintings by Congo the Chimpanzee outsold Warhol and Renoir by over 25,000 dollars in June 2005 at a London art auction. Born in 1954, Congo created more than 400 drawings and paintings between the ages of two and four. He died in 1964 of tuberculosis. There is no precedent for this kind of sale.

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Essay Two : The Rebirth of Realism

More thoughts on realistic art yesterday and today by the artist

Art History has entered a new era with the birth of Art Numérica, or digital art media in the 21st century. Artists never stop exploring with mediums. Artists have been developing techniques, experimenting with different tools since at least twenty- five thousand years ago, when the first artist picked up a charred stick and scratched a picture out on the wall of his cave. You'd think everything would have been tried by now, but it hasn't. Exploring new mediums this very day is just as exciting, just as full of freshness and newness as it ever was.

Photography, Drawing, Painting and Digital media combined

The creation of Realistic art has been the goal of most artists since the dawn of civilization. Realistic art was the pride of ancient Greece. The world's greatest museums are full of realistic art. Realistic art WAS art until the advent of the abstract expressionist movement in the twentieth century. The coming of the camera in the nineteenth century changed realistic art forever. Suddenly, realistic art was not the only way to create realism in portraits and historical records. The work of the realistic artist was suddenly made into an expensive luxury. The political power of the realistic artist was broken and they were no longer an indispensable member of society. Hostility to the creators of realistic art goes back to ancient times and the jealousy of advisers to the Pharaohs and others who were not able to spend as much time with their rulers as their portraitists. Although with the aid of photographs, realistic art achieved levels of excellence undreamed of, the realistic art movement of the late nineteenth century was short.

None of these people earning their living creating realistic art could compete with the speed and low cost of photographic portraiture. Determined to survive, great realistic artists like Pablo Picasso ingeniously turned inward and began to explore things that could not be photographed in a new school of art, abstract expressionism. The day of the fine art superstars had arrived. It was now largely just a hobby to abstract and realistic artists alike. Illustration, because of advances in printing technology enabled an elite few to earn a living with their realistic art. These illustrators working in realistic art media were condemned and ridiculed in much the same way Europe's great symphonic composers were condemned for working in motion pictures after fleeing the Nazis during World War Two. The rift between realistic and abstract art grew wider and wider. The universities and key media usually sided with the abstract camp and derided anyone working in any realistic art media declaring boldly that realistic art was not "real" art. Immortal giants of realistic art such as Maxfield Parrish were mistreated their entire lives. They were accused of selling out for creating beautiful pieces of realistic fine art to earn a living. The attitude that the true artist must suffer and starve and die in poverty became a rule. There were the Abstract art superstars, the professional realistic illustrators, and the hobbyists who, although cut off from gainful employment and social influence still recognized their artistic gifts as a calling rather than a profession.

Early abstract art masters proved themselves as realistic artists before delving into realms of the intangible. They had to do this at that time to prove themselves because of the challenges they faced from the establishment for going against the status quo. In the latter part of the 20th century, realistic artists like HDJ were challenged to do abstract art to prove themselves as shown in the example above (Deirdre of the sorrows). Later realistic art training was abandoned in most schools and things like splattering paint in fits of rage were deemed more than enough. By the end of the 20th century something as destructive and ridiculous as nailing a pack of cigarettes to a shoe was considered fine art but not realistic paintings. Fashions in art have often been as silly as fashions in ladies hats. As the century drew to a close, many people had had enough. The realistic revolt was at hand. The rebirth of realism was fueled by the advent of the digital era. Now, for the first time in almost two centuries, an artist or illustrator could earn a decent living again with his realistic art. This is historic. Realistic art is not going to go away, especially now that photography has truly merged with traditional realistic visual art. Photography comes from the Greek words meaning "painting with light". Now with the advent of digital media the capability of realistic art has become almost limitless, truly, "painting with light". The merger of all the world's art forms to realize the potential of motion pictures has come now to still realistic art media. This website for example, combines music, prose, poetry, photography and traditional realistic art media to create an experience beyond merely looking at realistic paintings.

The twenty- first century is already seeing a new renaissance in the arts because of the world wide web. There has never been anything like it. Abstract art, computer art, photographic art, and realistic art are continuing to be separate schools of art but are also blending to create exciting new horizons. Although Digital art does offer completely new horizons to the artist in the 21st century it does not mean the end of our time honored art traditions. Instead, it offers additional ways to keep these traditions and schools of thought fresh and alive. ~ HDJ

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"Although I love Rossetti and all the other Pre- Raphaelite artists dearly, none of the Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood has influenced me more visibly than John William Waterhouse. Helen of Troy is my loving tribute to him, his vision, and his magnificent and deeply inspirational works. ( My life and artistic vision are patterned after and inspired by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but the actual appearance of my works are more patterned after those of J W Waterhouse.)

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Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( 1840- 1893) - "Swan Lake"

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