Old or new. Do you have any favourites? why do you like them?

I like a quite a few. Constable, Gainsborough and Francis Danby to name a few.
Of the latter I like his paintings which seem to be either ethereal or dramatic.....

http://www.artfund.org/assets/image/artwork/enlarged/002985_002444_0.jpg

http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/picture.aspx?id=6778&name=the-deluge

I would like to go to more exhibitions, but not many of my friends like art or are into going to galleries.

Josephine Wall...... because I feel that she's been inside my head and pinched my imagination and painted it all better than me. Even my personal symbols are in her art!!I love her use of colour too. I guess we would have a lot in common if we ever met.

http://www.josephinewall.com/josephine.html

As for other artists from the past they're varied, but usually I like them because of their colours, technique and handling of their materials but others like the Pre-Raphaelites and Art Nouveau artist/crafstmen I'm attracted by their content as well as skill.

This is one of my favourites:
http://jssgallery.org/Other_Artists/Andrew_Wyeth/Christinas_World.htm
I defy anyone to stand in front of it and not be moved...
(Usually by someone behind trying to get a better view! )
It's a long way to go (MOMA, New York) to get your problems in persepctive.
(But it's worth it.)
It's a painting that needs the size to get sucked in to Christina's world.
Some works are like that: they need the scale, or the right setting, to get what the artist intended.
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More of my favourites:-
Burne-Jones
Gustav Klimt
Oedilon Redon
Gustave Moreau
Louis Tiffany (glass)
John Waterhouse
Claude Monet
Christopher Whall (glass)
Rene Lalique (glass/jewellery)
Alan Lee( illustrator)
Cicely Mary Barker (illustrator)
Arthur Rackam (illustrator)

If I could own one painting from any in the world I would choose The Lady Of Shallot by John Waterhouse, I love it so much but never understood why it just has a resonance within my soul.

henri matisse, i had to do my A-level french presentation on him, kinda stuck then and really really like his work

I love the work of:

Stanley Spencer
Henry Pether
David Roberts
Henri Lebasque
Cornelis Springer
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin
David Bomberg
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson
Sidney Richard Percy

and many, many others.

Old

El Greco, Goya, Caravaggio, Vermeer,Hals, Blake, Turner, Cezanne, Manet, Munch,

Not so Old
Kandinsky, Picasso, Dali, Enrst ,Delvaux, Rivera, Pollock, Bacon, Beuys, Heron, Rothko, Heartfield, Hamilton, Palozzi

Recent
Peter Howson, Claire Barclay, The Boyle Family, Ron Mueck, The Chapman Brothers, Rachel Whitereed, Chuck Close, Bruce Nauman, Ed Ruscha, Steve McQueen
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"The tighter you grasp Lord Vader, the more it will slip through your fingers."