Colorado Sky Inspired Art Pic

Sometimes I am amazed by how beautiful the sky can be here in Colorado. It's incredibly vast and so gorgeously blue - most of the time anyway. And especially around sun set when the sky goes all pinks and blues and oranges I'm reminded of Maxfield Parrish paintings. Of course the skies here can go from Maxfield Parrish to a Tim Burton movie in the blink of an eye when a thunder storm is rolling in, but when they are Maxfield Parrish skies it's like you're in a fantasy land. I love the sky here.Ecstasy by Maxfield Parrish, 1929, oil on panel

So in honor of Colorado skies my art history pic for the month is Ecstasy by Maxfield Parish. (BTW I wouldn't suggest typing in just "ecstasy" in a search engine if you are looking for this painting... Yeah, I learned the hard way, but thankfully "strict search" was on. Whew.) Is this not a sumptuously beautiful painting?! I swear it's so gorgeous that you just can't mind what a fluffy piece of art it is. If camping made me feel like that I'd be up in the mountains every weekend. :)

A little bit about Parrish:
Parrish was an American artist who graduated from an art school in Pennsylvania and started his career in illustration, he was an incredible illustrator, but then he focused on oils - painting fantasy based scenes and later in his life he painted landscapes almost exclusively (he said he was done with "girls on rocks"). The interesting thing about Parrish is that he does not fit into any major movement or style in art history. He was one of a kind. Of course you can see some classical influence in the draping of sweeping of the fabric (classical as in Hellenistic Greek art) and some influence also from the Pre-Raphaelites, but to me it's neat that he was doing his own thing while most of the art world around this time was way into the big movements (Cubism, Expressionism, etc.). He was very famous in his own right when he was alive and reportedly lived a very extravagant and eccentric life until he died at the age of 96 in 1966. He painted until he was 91 years old.

Fun Facts:
The movie posters for The Princess Bride were based on Maxfield Parrish paintings.

Parrish himself was the model for many male figures (and one female figure) in his paintings and illustrations.

Parrish often built models of his landscapes before painting them.

Parrish Blue is an oil paint color named for the beautiful blues in Maxfield Parrish's paintings.