# Off-Topic Discussion > Artists' Corner >  >  Favorite Paintings

## O'nus

"Nude Descending Staircase" by Marcel Duchamp



Easily one of my most favorite paintings.  I have several favorites, but this is the one at the time.

What about you...?

~

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## Carôusoul

I have been thinking for ten minutes and: I do not have an individual favourite.

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## O'nus

> I have been thinking for ten minutes and: I do not have an individual favourite.



Pick a random one?  You surely do not think that this painting is the only one that I favour, do you?  I would certainly not think the same of you.  

I was just interested in seeing others paintings that they would like to share.  'Favorite' is just an arbitrary adjective to give purpose to the decision process rather than 'Random paintings' thread.

Now that I think of it, "Random Paintings" might have been a better idea.

*Shrugs*

~

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## Carôusoul

Cy Twombly

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## pj

The Nut Gatherers - Housed nearby at my beloved Detroit Institute of Arts.

Painted in 1882, while a lot of new and very different directions were being explored - this is almost the antithesis of the revolution that had already begun.

Not sure what it is about this painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, but it is utterly captivating to me.

I would love to post the Detroit Industry murals by Diego Rivera, also of the DIA... but they just don't work the same unless you are standing in them: http://www.dia.org/education/rivera/info1.htm

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## O'nus

Carousoul; I love it.  To me it seems to resemble the chaotic nature of life; complete nonsense and no linear consistency, just chaos.

pj; adorable.  I love it!  For some reason it reminds me of Anne of Green Gables (which I may happen to like simply because I am Canadian, lol).

~

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## Carôusoul

> Carousoul; I love it.  To me it seems to resemble the chaotic nature of life; complete nonsense and no linear consistency, just chaos.
> 
> ~





Really?

Weird..one of the things i get from it is it makes me feel good, secure and ordered. heh.

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## O'nus

> Really?
> 
> Weird..one of the things i get from it is it makes me feel good, secure and ordered. heh.



That's the beauty of abstract art!

~

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## Carôusoul

moar.


Francis Bacon's Pope.




It's a transcription from this:

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## Moonbeam

> "Nude Descending Staircase" by Marcel Duchamp



Isn't that like the first cubist painting?  I vaguely remember my humanities requirement class--the very easy Art Appreciation.  I actually liked it a lot.

I like Dali and Miro.  Lots of other things too; I don't which is my favorite.

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## Mes Tarrant

I was touring some very very old mansion. I forget what country it was in. Maybe Austria, maybe Ireland... Anyway. There was an enormous painting of a duke or something hanging in the living room. It was amazing...  I had definitely seen those types of paintings before, but this one just burned itself into my mind. 

 :Sad:  I don't remember what the name of the person was or the name of the artist. But it's funny how sometimes paintings stick in your mind like that.

Ohh yeah yeah, it was this style of painting.... but MUCH better, in weird ways.

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## Universal Mind

I have a lot of favorite paintings, and this one is definitely one of them.  It is _The Sleeping Gypsy_ by Henri Rousseau.

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## Xox

I have way too many. I'm just picking one randomly.

Ahhh La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Walter Crane. Anyone read that poem? It's one of my favorite poems as well, and this painting was just perfect for it. I'll be posting about a hundred more later >.>, once I find the right sizes and whatnot.

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## Moonbeam

That looks like this guy grown up:








>

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## pj

> Ohh yeah yeah, it was this style of painting.... but MUCH better, in weird ways.







> That looks like this guy grown up:



Both look like Dutch masters.  Ter Borch, perhaps?  I love that style, and Ter Borch was about the best at it - he could render textiles that were beyond photo-realistic.

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## Moonbeam

Blue Boy was by someone named Gainesville, I think.

Edit:  Whoops, Gainsborough.

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## Mes Tarrant

Wow, cool find MB!

pj, I'll have to research that artist... perhaps he is the one who painted the one I was talking about. Hmmm, worth a try.

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## CoLd BlooDed

Anything Dali.  Including this one.



It's entitled... 'Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening.'

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## pj

> Blue Boy was by someone named Gainesville, I think.



Well that doesn't sound very Dutch, does it?

I'm one of those guys who likes to hang out at art museums but really doesn't know a whole lot about more than a couple things.





> Wow, cool find MB!
> 
> pj, I'll have to research that artist... perhaps he is the one who painted the one I was talking about. Hmmm, worth a try.



Do check him out, along with his contemporaries.  Ter Borch specialized in enigmatic scenes of high society.  His eye for composition and detail were both amazing.  His sister was also a brilliant painter and was often a model for him.  And then there was this dog...

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## Adam

NOt too original, but I love Salvador Dali, and most of his work, a couple of my favourites:

Salvador Dali - Soft, Construction with boiled beans.



Salvador Dali - The persistence of memory



Edvard Munch - Scream

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## Universal Mind

Salvador Dali: _Swans Reflecting Elephants_




Dominic Appia: _Entres Les Trous De La Memoire_

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## Xaqaria

Galatea of the Spheres

The Hallucinogenic Toreador

Elephants

Swans Reflecting Elephants

Among others by Salvador Dali

The Eye of Silence

L'Ange du foyer ou Le Triomphe du surréalisme

Among others by Max Ernst

I would also name a lot by H.R. Giger and Alex Grey, but since I think you were looking for just one, I'll stop there. Either way, I can't think of just one either.

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## Moonbeam

Dreamers love Dali.  ::smitten::

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## Howie

Awesome Idea For a thread. Great way to see some great art.  :boogie: 
This Brent Heighton's - Loons in The Mist captures something for me.


Great to see some fellow avid abstract enthusiasts!

pj. That picture captures a sense of complete innocence. To me.
Very cool

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## Universal Mind

One more, and then I will chill for a while.  My favorite paintings are very dreamish and seem like what other lucid dreamers would like.  

Odilon Redon: _The Cyclops_



The paintings I have posted all depict great dreamscapes to visit in dreams.

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## ascend

probably anything by Zdzislaw Beksinski

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## Moonbeam

Ascend!  Thank you!  This is really stupid, but somebody here at DV had a link to those paintings in their sig, and I thought that s/he had done them.  I even PM'ed told to say how cool I thought they were.  ::doh::   I think I said that I thought they would be famous for sure, stupid me.

Then I forgot the member's name (unless it really was Beksinski himself  ::shock:: ), and I was asking everyone if they could remember who this person was, and no one could.   I was trying to describe the paintings, and no one knew what the heck I was talking about.

I love his paintings--I've never seen anything so incredibly eerie and haunting.  I'm so glad you reminded me of him.

P.S. I think I'll just refer to him as "Beksinski" and skip saying his first name.

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## Howie

Ascend - those are really bizarre.  ::goodjob2:: 

Dali to me is like an over played song. Undeniably great but just warn out. Like the Mona Lisa or A Starry night etc.

There are so many it has really bugged me this morning because I can't for the life of me single any out. 

Dali does have a _not so well known_ painting "the Bull Fighter" The single brush strokes, color and the vagueness all work very well IMO.

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## Howie

What the hell do you have to do to get some pics from some artists.  :Sad: 
Buy the books or CDs I guess.

Tony Couch?
Zolten Szabo?

 ::morecrying::

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## Howie

One of his "not so busy" paintings

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## O'nus

_Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?_ 
~

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## Siиdяed

> 



I can't believe how much I like that painting.  ::?: 

I generally generalise (waah) Pollock's work as all being like the first you posted, but that one's incredible.

Studying iconography at the moment. The technique and ideology behind it is inspiring, even if they don't consider them as 'art', as such.

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## Howie

> I can't believe how much I like that painting. 
> 
> I generally generalise (waah) Pollock's work as all being like the first you posted, but that one's incredible.
> 
> Studying iconography at the moment. The technique and ideology behind it is inspiring, even if they don't consider them as 'art', as such.



Who does not consider it art?   :Confused: 
There was a brief period that he constructed more similar approach to the one you like.





> _Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?_



Here is Jackson Pollock O'nus. He died in 1954


You can see in this photograph part of his technique.

Recently there has been a huge debacle over some recently found, what were thought to be some of Pollock's originals. All the scholars agreed that they were authentic. Later science concluded that the pigment in those paintings were not even available at that time.
There is a lot more to it. I will see if I can find a link.  :smiley: 

Pollock's fake collection. Study
I have had the luxury of being on top of this news because I live less than a half hour away from Case. Ellen Landau,  a professor of art history at Case Western was one of the first to acknowledge that she believed they were in fact original Pollocks.

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## Siиdяed

> Who does not consider it art?  .



In general, the Orthodox Churches that favour icons refer to them as prayers; you write an icon, not paint it, and there are many iconoclasts that don't sign their work.

I'd agree if you're suggesting it is art. The metal-clad icons are especially worth a look.

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## Howie

> In general, the Orthodox Churches that favour icons refer to them as prayers; you write an icon, not paint it, and there are many iconoclasts that don't sign their work.
> 
> I'd agree if you're suggesting it is art. The metal-clad icons are especially worth a look.




ooops I took it to mean something different. An icon or an artist and their works.
Thanks  :smiley:

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## jacobo

surrender by jack vettriano



the old guitarist by picasso

anything by philp c curtis





> Here is Jackson Pollock O'nus. He died in 1954



 
i think he was joking.

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## Xox

Ahh the guitar one of my favorites as well.

Anyone read the poem "The Guitar?" I don't remember the poet..

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## Howie

_Who the #$&&#37; Is jack vettriano?_

Check this out -->  you

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## jacobo

> _Who the #$&% Is jack vettriano?_
> 
> Check this out --> you



 
what?

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## Universal Mind

Art.  Decide.  Do not feel like you have to decide.  What do you decide?

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## Howie

Below you can create your own Jackon Pollock, just move your mouse around the canvas... and click occasionally.

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## Howie

Piet Mondrian
Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue -1927 
If you look at Piet's work, most of them look similar. I like his work because he went to pure abstract. With that he had to really hold a strong composition with color and line.
I chose this painting in particular because it is viewed at The Cleveland Museum of art by where I live.  :smiley:

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## valis

some of vonnegut's stuff is pretty cool



and...


"Tralfamadorian, Polychrome"

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## ninja9578

The Persistence of Memory


and The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory


They're both like three inches across.

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## slayer

I would have to say my favorite paintings are the Elfen Lied remakes of Gustav Klimt's paintings.

They just have that "fresh" look to them...plus they have my favorite characters in them XD

Edit: Here's a good link to the pictures of Gustav compared to the Elfen Lied pictures

*     !WARNING!
CONTAINS NUDITY!*
http://elfenlied.broken-frontier.de/intro.html

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## MrBeelzy

William Blake's Ancient of Days is my favorite painting by far.

Oh, and since Kurt Vonnegut was brought up, I've always enjoyed his illustrations, particularly this one (check the filename if you don't get the reference)

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## Howie

That is a good one Breezley

Here is a cool one by one of our very own Tornado Joe. One from his trybe series.

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## Oneiro

I like Auerbach, Kossof, Klein, Siqueiros, O'Higgins, O'Gorman and O'Donahue, as well as some Hodgkin and Picasso's rose period.. but the best painting?

Nothing comes close to ancient Cave Painting imo.

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## Howie



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## Howie

*One of Universal Mind's favorite paintings!*

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## Universal Mind

Howie, how dareth you post a much better picture of what I already posted.   :Mad: 





> Art. Decide. Do not feel like you have to decide. What do you decide?



Good God, another drunk post apparently.   ::?:

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## Howie

> Howie, how dareth you post a much better picture of what I already posted.



no shit.  ::?: 

I thought I remember it being posted. I overlooked this thread and found that Becominodango dude's post about his bullshit.

Sorry about that.
being a _larger_ pic I can leave it and give you credit. Or I could delete it?   :smiley:

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## Universal Mind

> Sorry about that.
> being a _larger_ pic I can leave it and give you credit. Or I could delete it?



No, no, I was joking.  Yours is bigger and of better quality.  It should stay.  By the way, it's a trip that we both happen to be fans of that particular painting.  It's classic, but not extremely famous like some of the Dali paintings that have been posted.

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## Siиdяed

> Yours is bigger and of better quality.



 :smiley: 

...come on. You can see it.

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## Universal Mind

These are videos showing a lot of paintings by three of my favorite artists-- Rene Magritte, Georgio De Chirico, and Max Ernst.  The paintings are pretty much all surreal, which associates their types of imagery with lucid dreaming.  I like these videos so much and see such a connection between their themes and dreaming that I recently put them in my sig.  

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0hAxUTGincM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=d_yh0rruFg4
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pfs_Wh-a0Nk

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## Howie

Eeeeey cool idea Universal. You Tube. 
Hmmm. With the music and all it's like a show.

Nice picks too!
Giorgio De Chirico, I have seen a few of his work. I really am not that familar with him. He is under rated isn't he?

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## Howie

Blanc/Blue

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## Universal Mind

> Eeeeey cool idea Universal. You Tube. 
> Hmmm. With the music and all it's like a show.
> 
> Nice picks too!
> Giorgio De Chirico, I have seen a few of his work. I really am not that familar with him. He is under rated isn't he?



Yeah, you can find those music slide show videos with the works of almost any famous painter, apparently.  At least I have found videos like that on everybody I have looked up so far.  

I don't think Chirico is that famous, at least not in the U.S.  He might be better known in Europe.  I discovered him when I came across one of his paintings in a book about lucid dreaming (_The Lucid Dreamer_ by Malcolm Godwin).  If I had not done that, I am not sure when I would have ended up learning about him.  I hunt for surreal art all the time, so I like to think I would have eventually ended up discovering him any way.  

Surrealism does not get the credit it deserves in the U.S.  Surreal literature is an area with all kinds of phenomenal works, and the most famous and respected surreal writers are practically unknown here.  That is too bad because people are really missing out on some great stuff.  The reason might be that the works are mostly written in French, and it was just a few decades ago when Michael Benedikt started translating a lot of the surreal classics into English.

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## Howie

> Yeah, you can find those music slide show videos with the works of almost any famous painter, apparently.  At least I have found videos like that on everybody I have looked up so far.  
> 
> I don't think Chirico is that famous, at least not in the U.S.  He might be better known in Europe.  I discovered him when I came across one of his paintings in a book about lucid dreaming (_The Lucid Dreamer_ by Malcolm Godwin).  If I had not done that, I am not sure when I would have ended up learning about him.  I hunt for surreal art all the time, so I like to think I would have eventually ended up discovering him any way.  
> 
> Surrealism does not get the credit it deserves in the U.S.  Surreal literature is an area with all kinds of phenomenal works, and the most famous and respected surreal writers are practically unknown here.  That is too bad because people are really missing out on some great stuff.  The reason might be that the works are mostly written in French, and it was just a few decades ago when Michael Benedikt started translating a lot of the surreal classics into English.



I have not been there in the flesh.  I also realize the origin of many great artists and movements are from Europe. But is it just me or do you get a feeling that Europeans feel better than us, more cultured, artsy?
Hell, maybe they are.  :tongue2:

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## juroara

classical paintings of all kind have always inspired me, me, not being a big fan of modern art

I just recently discovered visionary art and robert venosa

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## Moonbeam

> Good God, another drunk post apparently.



Gotta be careful about those PUI's.  ::lol:: 

UM thanks, I didn't know they had stuff like that on you tube.  Check this one out, by Miro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQSlJ7bNA5w

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## theyearthreethousand

Rene Magritte, Not To Be Reproduced & The Lovers II. I have studied this artist quite extensively, I prefer him over Dali and any other Surrealist painter. He actually found his mothers dead body after she drowned herself in a river with her dress covering her face (probably for the better?) - which is the reason he obscures characters faces in such a way in many of his works (including the above image). Very tragic. a great pioneer with a clean and simple style, knowing about his life certainly enhances the viewing experience. one of my favorites for sure, eventually I will see his paintings in person.

Next up, Egon Schiele. Incredible at depicting the human form. Poor guy died at just 28. Makes me very sad. he is a great inspiration. most of his works are sketches.

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## Mes Tarrant

yearthreethousand, that mirror painting is like the stuff of nightmares for me. Well, used to be, anyway. Very, very, very creepy. But cool.

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## Howie

I love Reader's Digest. They have always put painting on their back covers. A long time ago they had this painting that I ripped out and hung up on my wall. DAMN I cannot find it. I would like to post it!

So what I really want to know is;
What is the deal with C.F. Payne. I can't stand his work. Is it just me? Is he supposed to be a modern Rockwell? What is the deal, what do you think of hir work? I just don't get it.
I try to realize how subjective art is. Art still can be judged. Can you tell me what is good about her paintings?

Come to find out he is getting booted off RD for fucking advertisements. I don't know what's worse.  ::?:

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## juroara

> I love Reader's Digest. They have always put painting on their back covers. A long time ago they had this painting that I ripped out and hung up on my wall. DAMN I cannot find it. I would like to post it!
> 
> So what I really want to know is;
> What is the deal with C.F. Payne. I can't stand his work. Is it just me? Is he supposed to be a modern Rockwell? What is the deal, what do you think of hir work? I just don't get it.
> I try to realize how subjective art is. Art still can be judged. Can you tell me what is good about her paintings?
> 
> Come to find out he is getting booted off RD for fucking advertisements. I don't know what's worse.



some people like abstract or surreal because they feel it portrays the human condition better

others like paintings that talk about ordinary modern life, because to them that is real

for those of us who feel there is more to life, than, ordinary life, ordinary life paintings wouldn't appeal to us

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## Howie

> some people like abstract or surreal because they feel it portrays the human condition better
> 
> others like paintings that talk about ordinary modern life, because to them that is real
> 
> for those of us who feel there is more to life, than, ordinary life, ordinary life paintings wouldn't appeal to us




That is very well put juroara.

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## Siиdяed

_Crucifixion_, Francis Bacon (1933)

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## Howie

Wow.

What an impact that has Siиdяed!

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## Siиdяed

Bacon is fascinating. There are so many facets of his work, his artistic ideology, that are just incredible.

That he was a perfectionist often struggling with doubt over his work, for example, that caused him to title most of his works as 'studies', and to go through phases - especially in his early years - of destroying most of his own work. That he goes over motifs like the pope or the crucifixion over and over and over again.

I'm doing some essays on the religious imagery in his work for RS coursework at AS and it's made me realise how much I fail for taking GCSE Latin instead of Art. Damnation.

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