Inspiration Fridays: John William Waterhouse

Before there were mori girls, before there were hipsters, before there were blogs and tumblr and Etsy...

There was John William Waterhouse.

I love paintings- they are one of my favourite art forms.  I have no skill at painting whatsoever... just ask my boyfriend.  We have some awesome puff paint stick figure drawings rotting on our bookshelves somewhere.  But I appreciate them so, so much.  I especially love paintings with romantic themes.  As much as I appreciate very well executed work, I am a sucker for content, and I like to see pretty women, flowers, handsome men, and long, flowing dresses.  Most people like that type of thing.  I enjoy the type of painting that makes me want to take a book of Gothic poetry and sit in the park on a cloudy day for hours with a latte.  To be honest... a lot of things in life make me want to do that, but the work of John William Waterhouse definitely does!

The themes are from folklore and literature.  The women are pretty, and either elegantly dressed or delicately nude.  Curiosity and despair and prevalent and draw you into the painting, evoking so much feeling.  I respond very emotionally to his work, and I hope that you find it inspiring as well.  

All of these paintings are by John William Waterhouse.

Yeah.  I love his work.  I hope you enjoy it too!

PS.  I hope I wasn't too doom and gloom yesterday.  This upcoming "Apocalypse" just gives me a moment to highlight my main intention of this blog- pointing out that we all need to be a bit more optimistic and realize that our world is pretty darn lovely and awesome, and so are the majority of the people in it.  Have optimism, have faith, make beauty, make art, love one another, accept one another, and enjoy the ride tomorrow, kids.  Hopefully it won't be a bumpy one! 

~Emily