29 articles · 0.9K karma · 2 friends · active 3 months ago
"War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.” Cormac McCarthy
So, I wanted to paint subjects that were a little less morbid, and get away from photos of victims of state repression..
Ideally, I would have painted a portrait from life.
But, since logistically, I have no way of doing that, I had to use [...]
So, I have a -- perhaps morbid, I prefer to think, timely -- fascination with photos of victims of state repression.
I'm not alone as per David King's "Ordinary Citizens" and Tomasz Kizny's French-language "The Great Terror [...]
So, Cserny was the boss of the Lenin Boys, the Hungarian Soviet Republic's equivalent of the Cheka.
He was a brutal, sadistic killer, but with an undeniable flair for fashion, a stick grenade being an indispensable accoutrement for the [...]
So, this is where I'm at currently with the oil self-portrait from my most recent post.
In the immortal words of Monty Python, “ . . . and now for something completely different . . . ‘
As I was painting miniatures, with oil portraits as my reference, I began to wonder how painting in 2 dimensions was different from [...]
Commanded Napoleon's Imperial Guards. Died in 1812 from complications of a head wound sustained in combat with the armies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
You have to wonder if Napoleon had a couple more of these talented commanders at his [...]
General LaSalle was a legendary figure, considered the finest light cavalry commander of his day.
Known for his daring and audacity, as were so many of Napoleon's commanders, he is quoted as saying that "any hussar who is not dead by [...]
Appointed by Napoleon as commander of all French forces in Egypt, Kleber was stabbed to death by a student in Cairo in 1800.
Another one of Napoleon's stalwarts . . .
Amusing story related by Adam Zamoyski in his book 1812 about the invasion of Russia.
The Russians refrained from engaging with the French and withdrew deeper and deeper into the countryside.
The [...]
Nicknamed "La Tempete", or "The Tempest", by his fellow soldiers, Junot was fearsome in combat, single-handedly dispatching 6 enemy soldiers by the sword in one engagement.
Unfortunately, he also suffered from advanced [...]
