What Myth Would You Choose?

[PthaloBlueGirl]

Mythology has been a favorite subject matter for classic artists. If you were going to paint a scene from mythology what would it be?

:D

[Alan Cross]

I really like the Greek Mythology has some great things....
Alan :)

[PthaloBlueGirl]

No, I meant what myth not what culture the myth comes from. What scene from what mythical story.

:D

[Raindrop]

Wow! That's a tough one... Interesting question, I'm going to think about it.

[PthaloBlueGirl]

I think I'd do something with Hercules just so I'd have an excuse to paint a muscular guy :p

Here is a neat painting from Homer:
'To two swift bearers give him then in charge
To Sleep and Death, twin brothers, in their arms
To bear him safe to Lycia's wide-spread plains:
There shall his brethren and his friends perform
His funeral rites, and mound and column raise,
The fitting tribute to the mighty dead.'
(Homer, Iliad, XVI)
The painting is by Sir William Blake Richmond.

I think the one with the wings is Death and the one with wings on his 'helmet' is Sleep. Somewhere there is a quote about 'He who has wings for ears let him sleep' though I don't know if that is from Homer.

:D

[David Brown]

I think I'd like to do something with Penelope weaving talking to Telemacus and Odesseus[sic] coming home from the Odessey [sic] emerging from a Rembrandt kinda dark background.

[Eugene Veszely]

Hmmm....better go look up my mythology :eek: :D

[Alan Cross]

Ok then one I have always liked is the story of Medusa the girl with the bad hair....
Alan :)

[Alan Cross]

I have always seen her painted as normal but really she was a Gorgon, in Greek mythology, one of three monstrous daughters of the sea god Phorcys and his wife, Ceto. The Gorgons were terrifying, dragonlike...even after she was killed her face could turn you to stone she was so hidious...
Alan :eek:

[Elankat]

I'm actually getting ready to work on sketches for a series of "birth myths" that deal with the myths surrounding the creation of various gods, for example the birth of Athena and the birth of Aphrodite are the first two that I'll be looking at.

I have sketches for several works involving Hera. They are more symbolic in nature and involve a lot of the iconography that surrounds her. However, some depict her rape (or as Zeus called it, marriage) and other abuses Zeus perpetrated, such as hanging her from the sky.

I also have a series (only one is started) that is inspired by Native American myth and a poem about corbae. Several asian legends also fascinate me. I included the bodhisattva Kuan Yim in one of my recent pieces. The celtic pantheon and Arthurian legend are also immediate fair game.

Having a heavy interest in fantasy art, exploration of myth is one of my big fascinations that I intend to make more time for, particularly since I'm interested in my fantasy work going more into the symbolic and traditional/crossover art.

[Matt Sammekull]

I once painted a diptych over the myth of Daphne and Apollo. It sold right away, straight from the easels... sigh sigh...


Cheers,

//matt

[Alan Cross]

Originally posted by Matt Viinanen
I once painted a diptych over the myth of Daphne and Apollo. It sold right away, straight from the easels... sigh sigh...


Cheers,

//matt

LOL nothing to sigh about sell it before you get attached!
Alan :)

[bjs0704]

I have been really interested in the Greek myths for the last couple of years. I love Renaissance and Baroque paintings, but often I didn't know the stories behind them.

Titian's "Bacchus and Ariadne" has been a favorite painting of mine. I love the color and all of its characters. So, I have been doing paintings of Bacchus, Pan and so on for a while.

I have also become really fond of Homer's Iliad. It might also be fun to do each of the individual Olympian gods.


Barb Solomon:cat:

[pampe]

I like the various creation myths...and think they would make a super series....

[Keith Russell]

--Faust--

K

[yogi]

Icarus.

[paulb]

I went through a bit of a phase where I started doing a sort of 'kids of' mythological characters. One of them - I think I posted it somewhere was the Son of Medusa, which was good fun. Got some really good advice, went to do it again, and couldn't find the reference photos...!

I'd prefer to take the myths as starting points, develop my own twists or stories, and then paint something from that.

Not sure if it answers the questions or not...!

P.