May 25, 2011
These are not photographs: 10 astonishingly realistic still life paintings
These are all by photorealist oil painter Steven Mills. Check out more at his site.
I wish I had the one of the Scrabble game… Which is your favorite?
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Very cool, though I have difficulty understanding the point of making a painting look so realistic.
He could have saved himself a ton of time and just used the photo he copied these from. My opinion on photorealism is: I appreciate the effort but not so much the art itself.
The point is talent and skill.
me too! not a whole lotta painterly quality going on here……i have many friends that can really paint. with lots of heart and soul…..
And here we have an example of subjectivity.
So everyone has been over-hyping Rembrandt all these years.
As a photographer – no. Huge difference between the drawing and the photo. Mostly in sharpness. See the two blown up big side by side on actual paper – there is a huge difference.
The jars are my favorite. Reminds me of my grandmothers house.
These make my photo-realistic stick figures look stupid.
Best comment so far, Beepage.
just being honest…
Amazing!
Wow! I love the one of the ball jars. They’re all amazing!
I remember taking an art history class in college and discussing whether or not this type of painting is truly “art”. The class was pretty divided over it, and it was one of our more lively discussions.
Astounding.
I’d like the Ball jars and the metal tubs in my kitchen, the marbles and the Scrabble game for the family room, and the pens & pencils and the newspapers for the den.
Just one? Probably the jars.
Brad Delp fronting a Beatles cover band? Hard to imagine.
bull crap, no way this guy is even human
Amazing technique, not a lot of soul.
It’s a toss-up between the mason jars and the wine corks for me.
These are actually photos of photo-realistic paintings based on photos themselves? Surely this disturbs the space-time continuum in some way.
hahahaha.. too funny ben!
If I had to pick one, it would be the old buckets on the table.
I really like the pencils. The one yellow one with the eraser up contrasts nicely with the others.
My favorite is the one with the newspapers (is that the Wall Street Journal?)
How could anyone debate that this is not art? If a little kid throwing paint on a canvas can get so much credit than this is most definitely art.
for real. people who say it’s not art only say that because they don’t have that level of skill.
Art is not just about skill. It takes skill to be a nuclear physicist, but we generally don’t consider them artists (though I’m open to the idea).
That said, I do think these paintings are works of art, albeit rather boring ones.
I would interrogate the underlying assumption that dichotomizes skill and artistry. I think it at least deserves a more nuanced treatment.
Meanwhile, I say anyone who can portray light as these artists do has godlike talents. (How’s that for nuance?)
That’s insane!
That’s insane, I just skipped by this post. Saw the nice pictures than read the title. My Jaw dropped: “These are PAINTINGS?” Very impressive.
Unreal! Those marbles? Come on. That’s amazing.
If photography is art, then these are even better? I can’t imagine the time it took to do these!
This takes “attention to detail” to a whole new level. I’m really not sure I yet believe these aren’t actually just photos… amazing!!
I am absolutely blown away by how wonderful these paintings are! Fantastic! Beautiful! Amazing! Awesome! The point is these paintings show the world seen through an artist’s eyes. We artists get excited over colors, textures, composition, the message in the subject matter, and things that are beyond words. There is great beauty, song, feelings, colors, movement, life, all around us and the majority of the world is sleeping and missing it. We artists stand in constant amazement! I feel sooooo sorry for those who never experience this dimension in its fullness!
Maybe this will help some folk: Use your imagination … Look at each picture and imagine that you can touch it. Feel the different textures and temperatures, dryness or wetness, slick, flat, or round items. In your imagination notice the smells of each item in the paintings. Then go back and look at each painting again quickly and experience the contrast of the many different sensations of sight, color, composition, texture, smells, forms, weight, etc. & NOTICE THE CONTRASTS in the experiences. In other words, experience what the artist is offering to share with you. This is his treasure he’s holding out to us. Once you get the hang of seeing and feeling this way, you will begin to experience this all around you in your day to day life & you will never be bored again. Everyone should take a course in painting and drawing if for no other reason than to begin to see … (examples) there are a thousand shades of green in a tree with green leaves. When you stop at a red light and look to the side of the road at some weeds, suddenly a ray of light & constrast of texture and color will be so beautiful it is a feast for your eyes & your whole day will be happier because you can see. “Reach out with your feelings, Luke.”
Well said!!
My jaw has dropped and cannot be found. Unbelievable!
It’s kind of like mountain climbers. They do it because they can. In art school, our instructor told us, ” You don’t get any points for making it hard on yourself.” He meant that he didn’t give credit for doing a more difficult resolution to the illustration problem, and neither would our future clients. On the other hand, I think many people would enjoy having the originals of these to hang on their walls and admire.
To me this is like Van Halen on guitar: undeniable talent and impressive effort, but a rather un-inspired and un-interesting final product.
I must say I did enjoy the images, the paintings ARE pretty impressive, but what I found very thought provoking were the comments.
thanks to all the commenters who made me feel that way. Doesn’t happen every time one reads on the net.
Photorealism blows my mind. That’s valuable in and of itself, but these are quaint subjects, too. I think back to the days before photography, this kind of skill would still have been rare, and yeah, probably impossible to come close to from life, but why not get as close to the actual scene as possible? I think these paintings do have feeling, but more so, they capture a moment. Just because you can take a picture doesn’t mean you should just do that instead of living in the moment long enough as it takes to preserve it in your preferred medium. These took incredible talent and attention to detail. I don’t think that’s anything to disregard because you think the closer to reality they are, the less the artist injects his own vision or feeling. I’m sure he felt it, he had to spend a huge amount of time in the details to get it right. The light and shadows are incredible, maybe he’s a tetrachrome? Regardless, no points for making it difficult? That’s just dismissive for its own sake. Skill is impressive because it takes dedication. Art is subjective. I love these.
I think the paintings are great, and so is the resulting debate – but the thing that stuck in my mind most was, how did the scrabble players manage to miss every double and triple letter and word score?
the second ‘T’ in mutt.. BOOM
I stand corrected (though to be fair, it was the first ‘T’…). One outta 13! BOO-yah!
M in Game
It’s like the world’s slowest polaroid.
Art is more than the injection of the artist himself into the subject, and it’s more than capturing a moment in time. The really great artists make us feel things we’ve never felt before, think things we’ve never thought of before, and see things we’ve never seen before.
I’d say the paintings above, if you really look at them, makes you see things you’ve never seen before; the way the light and background comes through those mason jars (that’s NOT easy to paint!) is what is blowing my mind. These are great still life paintings. Whether or not they compare to the Mona Lisa is irrelevant.
Excellent work, and as Scott Hollingsworth said, thanks for GREAT comments and discussion…and no one brought up politics!
-Eric
I am stunned by the light coming through glass in the Mason jars on a glass shelf in a window — and the paper weights on a newspaper. Refraction is so difficult to replicate, and it’s done perfectly. It occurs to me that this artist might have a microscopic perspective (think: absentminded professor) where minute details become more important than the big picture. It’s difficult to live with this kind of person, but if you can accept the idiosyncrasies, life is full of funny situations. “How could we be out of gas? I’ve only solved one coding problem in my mind while we were driving — we couldn’t have gone that far!”