A couple days ago was my wife's birthday. I took the day off and we went to have fun. We drove to San Diego and saw the Maxfield Parrish exhibit at the San Diego Art Museum.

We've always liked Maxfield Parrish. His painting are famous and everyone recognizes them when they see them, even if they don't recognize the name. He painted from about 1902 until the 50s. His most famous work is from 1910 to 1930.

I always thought that his style was very photorealistic fantasy. The stuff he did was looked very real, almost Norman Rockwell real, but of fantasy subjects.  He painted some very amazing images that really move people. That's why I was amazed to find out what he was really all about.

Two things surprised me. First, that the images were photrealistic because he actually took photos of his subjects and used them to paint the pictures. He would use the same model for many of the same characters in one pictures. they had photos that he took of himself, using a string to pull the shutter. The pictures looked so real because they are real people from photos

The next thing that shocked me was that he decided to "democratize" art and be what he called a "popular artist". He made this decision on purpose. He wanted lots of people to be able to see good art, not just the wealthy patrons that usually got to see it. His most famous work was used in calendars for the Edison company. His art was in millions of home across America. He illustrated a lot of books, mostly children's book, fairly tales and such.

I saw the original of this painting, Lute Players. It was like 12 feet tall. It was intense. The color of the blue sky was mezmerising. They made lithographs of it for sale for cheap by cutting off the top half and making it a couple feet wide instead. I saw the original one. Wow.

I find his stuff amazing to look at. I sat in front of a couple of them for a long time, just gazing at the colors and shapes. In 1932, at the height of his fame, he decided that he was tired of painting "girls on rocks" and started to paint only landscapes. He did this for the next 20-30 years, but these paintings were not as well received and never became as famous as his earlier stuff.

He was very much into nature, and I guess he could be considered part of the "Arts & Crafts" movement of this time period. I was awestruck by seeing some of his most famous paintings in person. They inspired me. I want to go do art.