Painted On The Knees

We're in December, the last month of the year and as holidays are coming, events are ... well, some events' frequency is intensifying, while others are coming to an end. Art exhibitions are part of the latter category, so I need to make sure to visit what I can, till I can, before these galleries close for the holidays.

Painted On The Knees.jpg

Today I visited two art exhibitions and one historical exhibition, but there's still a few on my list, not to mention the Christmas market. Anyway, let's see what I brought to you today as it's going to be interesting.

One of the exhibition was an art exhibition with a lot of wonderful paintings. The title of the post may surprise you, to not say shock you, but this is the title of the exhibition and most likely it's true. There's a chance these paintings were painted not using a stand, but literally placing the canvas on the artist's knees.

The artist's name is Emil Lajos Kovács, a contemporary painter who's artistic style takes me back the the 20th century. If you don't know he's still among us, you'd think (based exclusively on his artistic style, as I mentioned above), these paintings are a century old. The wonderful frames are also helping in this regard.

This exhibition was hosted by the local Unitarian church, so the conference room is not equipped with the latest technology for exhibitions, so excuse me if I could not align the frames right, but I think I was still able to take some decent photos.

None of the paintings were big, most of them were about the size of an A5 notebook and the biggest one may have been of a size of an A4 paper, but this is not a disadvantage in my eyes, on the contrary.

Most, if not all the paintings were oil on canvas, which is becoming rare these days. Artists prefer other mediums for various reasons. I don't mind, unless it reflects the light, but it wasn't the case here.

While I was looking at these two landscapes, was trying to figure out why I like these landscapes so much these days. It's not should searching as some would say, but there has to be a reason and the sooner I found out, the better for me.

After some thinking, I came to the conclusion that these wonderful countryside scenes mean calmness, tranquility for me and God knows I need that these days. Both are wonderful in my eyes and I don't think I could chose one.

None of the paintings had a title, and even though the art Emil Lajos Kovács brought to us is not abstract, there's still left a little to the viewer to guess or interpret, like the painting on the top.

After seeing a few works, you realize the artist chose to use strong colors, which could be disturbing to the eye sometimes, for some, but not in this case. My guess is, there are several ways of using strong colors, or selecting them, but in this case, the painter mastered this part.

This was the point when I wanted to ask, if the paintings are for sale. When I saw the chicken, the first thing that came to my mind, along with a smile on my face, was my dad would like this. After the exhibition, I met my dad, showed him the photos and guess what his reaction was when seeing the chicken. He started laughing and said it's wonderful, which it is. But what I like even more is the still life below. I'd call it rough style, which it is, but in a very good sense of the word, or should I say that's exactly what I like about it. The brush strokes are adding a lot of value to it and the colors are perfectly chosen. The dark claret wooden frame is absolutely adorable. I'd love to have this beauty on my wall.

I'm really curious if I'm the only one liking almost all the paintings, which does not happen often. Trust me, I'm visiting at least four exhibitions every month, if not more and there's rarely one, if any exhibition where I like the majority of the works. Of these two, I find the bottom one exceptional, for the lovely colors and the wonderful frame, which was a very good choice.

For me, writing a post about my exhibition experience is like a repetition, a second visit to the gallery. Looking at the artworks at home, gives you a second chance, to see what you missed at the exhibition. This is how I remember most of the works I see.

At this point, I think I'm going to go back and ask if the exhibition is with sale and if the answer is yes, I'll ask for the price list. Wish me luck as I'd like to buy one of the paintings 😉

Ok, this is it for today art fans, let me know what you think about this exhibition.

If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides: