JMW Turner

Tintern Abbey

Today I continue my "enjoy from afar" series, where I blog on things I'm tempted to buy but shouldn't.  Today's topic: the artist JMW Turner.  As you'd expect, any pictures you see here are his.

Kirkstall Abbey

JMW Turner (1775-1851) was a prolific English painter, whose romantic landscape works (oils, watercolors, sketches, etc.) are prevalent throughout the UK.  When I say prolific, I mean it.  He produced tens of thousands of works in his lifetime according to the Turner Society.  A website here claims to have the complete works for viewing, but I doubt it (it's still a good site, though).

Easby Abbey

I first came across Turner when touring Easby Abbey.  I saw his depiction of it (shown above) and fell in love.  My favorite thing about living in the UK is the ruined abbeys, and Turner painted a ton of them.  I'm no expert, but I believe he sketched them first as he came across them on his travels (he took frequent and extensive holidays throughout the UK and Europe), and then later made one (or many) watercolors based on the sketch. 

Melrose Abbey

He's a fantastic artist, in my opinion, and I love perusing his works.  It's not all about the abbeys- country scenes, castles, Roman ruins- he covered a lot of ground* in his landscapes.  If I have one complaint, it's that his watercolors seem overly light- see below example- but I've read that many of his paintings have aged poorly, and thus may not represent the original beauty.  Whatever the case may be, the man had talent.

Durham Cathedral

I'm really tempted to pick up a Turner reproduction for display in our home . . . but I think I can hold off.  I'll have a harder time saying no to a book, though.  The web has plenty of resources for enjoying his works online, and many books have been created to showcase his abilities.  One such I just borrowed from the local library- Turner's England, by Eric Shanes.  It covers watercolors Turner created between 1810-1838 of sites in England and Wales.  The selections featured there are quite enjoyable.  Perhaps most interesting to me was seeing what these famous tourist sites looked like 200 years ago- the attraction itself looks very much the same, but the surroundings have completely changed.  Some of that, of course, is artistic license, and purposeful alterations on Turner's part.  Much, however, is really different, and shows how quickly things change.  The grass withers; the flower fades.

*ha ha