My Mini Art Gallery

I have this fascination with paintings eversince I was little. Believe it or not, when everyone my age dreams to become a doctor someday, I dream to become a painter.

My grandfather discouraged me to pursue this career so I did not bother to cultivate whatever skills I have in painting anymore.

My dream has vanished but my love for the arts will stay with me forever.

So here is an attempt to make my mini (blog) gallery to honor the painters that I admire together with their famous works that I truly adore.



My most favorite painter is Vincent Van Gogh. A brilliant painter, yet insane. He tried to burn his hand, he mutilated the lower portion of his left ear, he tried to ingest his own paints. Van Gogh did not sell a single painting in his lifetime. But today, his works are among the most beautiful arts in history.

"As for me, I am rather often uneasy in my mind, because I think that my life has not been calm enough; all those bitter disappointments, adversities, changes keep me from developing fully and naturally in my artistic career." -Vincent Van Gogh

Starry Night
Saint-Rémy: June, 1889



The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night
Arles: September 1888



Edvard Munch, a Norweigian painter. Known as the father of Expressionism. The purpose of Expressionism is to show emotions that the artist feels in hopes that the viewer will be stirred and feel them as well. -EdvardMunch.info

His paintings depict misery, sickness, fear and death.

"We want more than a mere photograph of nature. We do not want to paint pretty pictures to be hung on drawing-room walls. We want to create, or at least lay the foundations of, an art that gives something to humanity. An art that arrests and engages. An art created of one's innermost heart." -Edvard Munch

The Scream (or The Cry) 1893




Claude Monet, a French painter. Although Edouard Manet is said to be the father of Impressionism, it was Monet who gave birth to the style. The term Impressionism was derived from his picture Impression: Sunrise. A title was needed in a hurry for the catalogue of the exhibition in 1874. Monet suggested simply Impression, and the catalogue editor, Edouard, added an explanatory Sunrise. The artist was not to know that because of criticism which seized upon the first word he had given the entire movement its name.- Expo-Monet.com

"His scenes shimmer, like memories. They are single, fleeting moments, reminders of life's beauty and transience." -John Berger about Monet

Impression, Sunrise (or Impression, soleil levant) 1873


Pablo Picasso, a Spanish painter and sculptor. His unending evolution in style throughout his entire career made him one of the greatest artists in the 20th century. His early works were the Catalan "modernisme" then followed by the Blue Period. He then embarked on what is known as the Rose Period. His love for primitive art opened the doors for Cubism. He first started with Analytical Cubism or the abstract. Then his style later evolved to Synthetic Cubism, the modern style (or semi-abstract). After the first world war, his style reverted to a Classicist mode of representation. At the twilight of his career, two decades after the second world war, he has produced a lot of work experimenting different styles.

"It takes a long time to become young." -Pablo Picasso

The Aficionado 1912


Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian painter. His works are few of the most recognized paintings around the globe. One of these is the Mona Lisa, the most famous piece of art in the world. He used the sfumato technique where the details in the background disappears in the misty atmosphere, as people describe it.

The Mona Lisa painting is famous for her enigmatic smile. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, though fiction, has revealed the secret for this. But this I leave for the reader to discover.

"Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind." -Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa (or La Jaconde) (1503-06)