A while back the artist Thomas Kincade died. Let me begin by saying I wish I could paint as well as Thomas Kincade. However, when my wife and I bought our first home which was a cute little house in a housing tract the real estate company named The Bungalows since the houses all looked like beach houses from a past era, we discovered the art of Marty Bell. Ms. Bell painted whimsical and romantic cottages, often with thatched roofs and gardens that looked right out of a fairy tale. We bought four of her pieces for our new home.
A few years later Thomas Kincade came along with basically the same trip and Marty Bell disappeared. A few years ago I was in a gallery and asked the gallery owner whatever happened to her. Then I saw a card on his next announcing a memorial service for her and got my answer. I don’t know how many people know of Marty Bell but Thomas Kincade certainly became famous.
I vastly prefer Marty Bell’s work to Kincade's for a reason that may seem odd. Marty Bell’s paintings were soft and somewhat impressionistic while Kincade's were tight and focused yet Bell’s paintings seemed more “real” to me. Even though Kincade’s paintings had greater detail and were “accurate”, Bell’s had a dreamlike quality. Marty Bell’s paintings seem like a more realistic depiction of a dream than Kincade’s did of reality.
This is another example of the artistic tipping point that I’ve mentioned before where a punk band’s tape seems ready for release while the Prog band’s tape, even though vastly superior technically, sounds more like a demo tape. We judge different styles of art with different standards. Punk Rock is not suppose to sound slick and professional but Prog Rock does. A dreamlike impressionistic painting is not suppose to look photo realistic but Thomas Kincade’s style was. Thomas Kincade was good but he had to either be better to paint in the style he used or go with a looser style.
I always felt Thomas Kincade’s paintings looked like the commercial art you sometimes see in a real estate office of the artist’s rendition of new home models. It therefore didn’t surprise me when a home manufacturer actually build a neighborhood of houses based on Thomas Kincade’s designs from his paintings. For the brochures to that housing tract his art was perfect.
A few years later Thomas Kincade came along with basically the same trip and Marty Bell disappeared. A few years ago I was in a gallery and asked the gallery owner whatever happened to her. Then I saw a card on his next announcing a memorial service for her and got my answer. I don’t know how many people know of Marty Bell but Thomas Kincade certainly became famous.
I vastly prefer Marty Bell’s work to Kincade's for a reason that may seem odd. Marty Bell’s paintings were soft and somewhat impressionistic while Kincade's were tight and focused yet Bell’s paintings seemed more “real” to me. Even though Kincade’s paintings had greater detail and were “accurate”, Bell’s had a dreamlike quality. Marty Bell’s paintings seem like a more realistic depiction of a dream than Kincade’s did of reality.
This is another example of the artistic tipping point that I’ve mentioned before where a punk band’s tape seems ready for release while the Prog band’s tape, even though vastly superior technically, sounds more like a demo tape. We judge different styles of art with different standards. Punk Rock is not suppose to sound slick and professional but Prog Rock does. A dreamlike impressionistic painting is not suppose to look photo realistic but Thomas Kincade’s style was. Thomas Kincade was good but he had to either be better to paint in the style he used or go with a looser style.
I always felt Thomas Kincade’s paintings looked like the commercial art you sometimes see in a real estate office of the artist’s rendition of new home models. It therefore didn’t surprise me when a home manufacturer actually build a neighborhood of houses based on Thomas Kincade’s designs from his paintings. For the brochures to that housing tract his art was perfect.
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