Arthur Lewin-Funcke - Boys Arguing (1895) x 2

This graphic is a perfect example, because it includes every
improvement I use: adjusting gamma/contrast/brightness,
colourizing,  resizing to a height of 768 pixels,  eliminating a
distracting background and retouching the main work of art.

The original  black and white  photograph is old,  fading  and
underexposed due to the glaring white background. And the
statue itself is neglected, dirty and spattered with bird poo!

Why bother? This is a masterpiece of dynamic human action,
one of only a handful I've come across. It deserves to be in a
museum, not exposed to the elements.  View Bernini's David
(Statues Page 1) for another masterpiece of dynamic action.

Francisque Duret - Pecheur dansant la Tarentelle

This picture of Duret's dancing boy was much easier to sort out
than the previous example. The main problem is that the boy's
wrist has been been sliced off.  I expanded the graphic, drew a
replacement slice of wrist and removed the mark on the wall.   

Click-a-pic for a bigger pic.

All the image manipulation tricks - gamma/contrast/brightness
changes,  colourizing, resizing,  combining pictures - were done
with  Pierre-E Gougelet's  XN View, a brilliant utility and free for
non-commercial use.  Less than 10MG!  Visit www.xnview.com.

Removing the grotty background and the bird poo and cleaning
the main image can only be done with a paint utility.  As I have
not found one I can recommend, I won't mention the one I use.
Nothing on the P.C. competes with  Degas Elite for the Atari ST.

The large graphics are saved as jpg files at 80% to save space.
(At 100% they start reaching bitmap size.) The animated GIF's
were created with another old freebie:  Microsoft GIF Animator.
I got my copy from Microsoft,  but freebie websites have it too.

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Searching the Web

Trawling the web for works of art is great fun.  There's a world
of artistic  treasures out there.  There's  also a lot of hard-core
porn!  So you need your  browser and  search engine correctly
set. I use Alta Vista and Google for finding graphics. Both have
family filters. Set them how you want them: ON for art, OFF for
porn queens strutting their stuff.  In graphics mode,  Alta Vista
and  Google produce pages of  thumbnails for each popular hit.
Use an artist's  full name to avoid  photos of  pet rabbits called
Michelangelo!  The same applies to titles, but remember this is
the  World Wide Web.  You won't find that  Cupid & Psyche you
seek if it's better known as Amore & Psyche or Amor & Psique.
The memory used by each graphic is shown:  50Kb to 200Kb is
a good mid range.  Generally, the rule is: the bigger the better.

How can you find a work of art if you don't know its title or who
created it? Try Artcyclopedia, which allows you to search by art
movement or period or country or gallery.  Another website you
can search is Olga's Gallery: www.abcgallery/index.html. There
I discovered the superb landscapes of  Ivan Shishkin.  Example:

Unknown statues are more difficult to locate than paintings.  A
website  worth exploring for famous statues is  The  Pygmalion
Syndrome Art Gallery.  It's at www.p-synd.com/artpages.htm.

The finest collection of statuary is housed in the Musee d'Orsay.
Unfortunately this great museum doesn't have a search facility!
You must go through its  huge online collection  room-by-room.
The Musee d'Orsay has told me it intends to revamp its website
(1998)  and add a search facility.  Go to www.musee-orsay.fr.  

There are far too many great art websites to list them all here. 
Below are some favourites that stand out for different reasons.

Brian Yoder's GoodArt Gallery - www.goodart.org - hasn't been
updated for months, which is a shame. It is well worth visiting.

The Art Renewal Centre  -  www.artrenewal.org/index.html  -  
supports traditional art techniques, skills and values. It awards
cash prizes to its winning artists.  It held its first  International
ARC Salon™ Competition in 2004, its second in 2005. My choice
for  2005  won:  Paul G. Oxborough's  First One Up.  Beautiful.  

While philistines invest in  Modern Art - stuffed cows,  unmade
beds, railway sleepers and other tripe, traditional art survives.
Its most successful form is  Fantasy Art.  For a good collection
of  sci-fi  and fantasy masters,  go to  http://therionweb.de/. 

Two of the finest fantasy artists are  Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell.
You can buy statuettes on their website:   www.imaginistix.com.
Try http://vallejo.ural.net/ for a good collection of Boris's work.

My favourite fantasy artist is Rowena Morrill, described by a BBC
reporter in patronizing toffee-nosed-twit terms as being "known
for fantasy-styled, brightly coloured works" (14 May 2003)!  For
God's sake! How not to describe one of the most sublime artistic
talents since  Botticelli!  And the BBC kids us it knows about art!
Clueless corporation. Rowena's website is www.rowenaart.com.

Les Edwards,  also called  Edward Miller,  is one of the UK's top  
fantasy artists.  He has won the  British Fantasy Award for Best
Artist six times. His work includes many book covers for writers
such as Anne McCaffrey and Meg Hutchinson. His website is the
best single-artist website I have found:  www.lesedwards.com.

Many contemporary artists have built careers by painting cover
art for novels.  Ironically there is more art on a paperback stand
than  there is in a gallery of  so-called "Modern Art".  For a giant
collection of  book cover art,  visit  www.fantasticfiction.co.uk.  

Another boom area is comic book art. Lambiek's Comiclopedia is
an  illustrated  compendium of  7000 artists!  If you want to find
Rupert's Alfred Bestall, try www.lambiek.net/artists/index.htm.

What to do without a comic to read?

The BBC's website is one of the most popular in the UK.  It is
well run,  updated daily and has considerable educational value.
Its strengths are news,  science,  nature,  history  and children's
entertainment.  Its manifest weakness is art.  For a laugh at the
BBC's  expense,  try the art test it hosts.  I was rated as a fan of
impressionism,  because I kept being forced to choose between
impressionism and primitive  Chinese works or poor Islamic art.
As a politically correct way of ascertaining cultural  background,
it works:  it found out I was European!  As an  experiment in Art
and  Personality  it is hopeless.  The  psychologists who devised
this nonsense should be sacked.  To try the test yourself,  go to
www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/art/.         

Note: to use any of the links in white, move your mouse pointer
to the end of the link. When your pointer looks like an I depress
the left mouse  button and  drag it along  the link to highlight it.
Click the right mouse button to COPY. Next click on the URL line
at the top of your browser,  use the delete key to clear it,  right
click your mouse button and PASTE the link you've just copied. 

To locate a host of contemporary artists,  click the icons below.