OK, we’re not famous painters—yet! But we treat each interior painting project like we’re creating a timeless masterpiece: beauty in someone’s home.
And we hope it inspires people to create more beauty in their homes.
Here are some of their famous works
for your appreciation and enjoyment.
Want to know a bit more about these famous painters?
Sandro Botticelli
(1445-1510)
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi or, more simply, Sandro Botticelli, was a master during the period called the Early Renaissance. He painted biblical scenes and portraits as well as mythological scenes. Botticelli is best known for The Birth of Venus and Primavera, which are both in Florence.
Botticelli spent most of his life in one neighbourhood in Florence. We can relate as we’re pretty attached to southwest Calgary. He did spend some time painting in Pisa and later in Rome, where he worked on the Sistine Chapel. Sometimes you gotta go where opportunity lies!
Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1519)
What couldn’t Leonardo da Vinci do? He was an inventor and artist interested in painting, sculpture, drawing, science, architecture, mathematics, music, literature, anatomy, cartography, engineering, geology, botany, paleontology, and astronomy.
This visionary, who saw so much of the future (he figured out how humans could fly!) and who was exceptionally talented in so many areas, has been an inspiration to countless people. Apparently only 15 of his paintings still exist but they include some of the most famous ever, including The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He’s also famous for his Vitruvian Man drawing.
Michelangelo
(1475-1564)
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an artist who has strongly influenced the world. He and Leonardo vie for the title of Renaissance man, although we think they can both happily take it. He’s left a wealth of beauty, including the sculptures of David and Pietà and the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and on its wall.
Michelangelo was a sculptor, painter, and architect—he became the architect of St. Peter’s Basilica at age 74—as well as a poet. People, including us, admire his passion and ability to instil awe in others. The Mannerism movement emerged as other artists tried to replicate Michelangelo’s way of doing things.
Artemisia Gentileschi
(1593-1656)
Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi was famous at a time when female painters weren’t acceptable. She was very skilled at painting women and specialized in painting famous women from the Bible as well as from myths and allegories. Some examples are Susanna and the Elders, Judith and Her Maidservant, and Judith slaying Holofernes.
Sadly for Artemisia, the people of her time focused more on the fact that she was a woman painting (what a weirdo!) and that she full on participated in the prosecution of the man who raped her (what a weirdo!) than on her work. But she kept painting and continues to inspire!
Rembrandt
(1606-1669)
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was truly one of the masters. A painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, he’s considered one of the greatest artists in history and he played a major role in the Dutch Golden Age. Rembrandt is famous for his portraits, including self-portraits, as well as Bible scenes, and he was known as the greatest etcher of his time.
Rembrandt’s work was considered masterful for many reasons. van Gogh famously said that Rembrandt was able to say things that there were no words for—a pretty impressive talent. His contemporaries called him a magician and he remains an inspiration hundreds of years after his death.
Vincent van Gogh
(1853-1890)
Vincent Willem van Gogh didn’t live long but he was busy! In less than ten years, he created approximately 2,100 pieces of art. van Gogh was an art dealer who suffered from depression. After a time as a Protestant missionary, he turned to painting with the support of his parents and some cash and unconditional love from his brother Theo.
van Gogh’s life was pretty sad in many ways. He suffered depression and mental illness (as so many of us do) and he didn’t have any commercial success or much money. He ended up killing himself at just 37. But the very fact that he kept creating—that he saw the beauty in the world even though it was so hard for him—is very inspirational. He became famous after his death and now everyone knows his work.
Edvard Munch
(1863-1944)
Everybody knows The Scream—maybe because it gives us the shivers. Edvard Munch, a Norwegian, said he ‘heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature’ one evening when he was out walking and that inspired him to create the painting.
An early teacher told Munch to paint his soul, which was good advice as it allowed him to develop a distinctive style. He made his art the centre of his life, giving up marriage and drinking (!?!) in order to create. The Nazis banned his work in Germany but most of his pieces survived the war.
Claude Monet
(1840-1926)
The original Impressionist, Oscar-Claude Monet painted what landscapes looked like to him. He painted the same landscapes over and over again, with no two paintings ever exactly the same because of changes in season and light. For more than two decades, he focused on painting the water lilies on his property in Giverny, France, showcasing his dedication to both art and craft.
It must have been pretty cool to have started a whole new way of painting. The Impressionist movement’s name came from the title of one of Monet’s paintings—Impression, Sunrise—which was displayed in an independent exhibition in 1874.
Paul Cézanne
(1839-1906)
Paul Cézanne was one of the post-impressionists, building a bridge between impression and the cubism that would arise in the art world in the early 1900s. His goal was to paint the world as accurately as possible. In his earlier years this meant his art featured landscapes with large, heavy features. Although later his style became lighter, he still wanted his works to be solid and lasting. (Hey, that’s how we feel about our work!)
Whatever he was painting, Cézanne studied his subject very intensely. Getting things right was really important to him and the quality of his work speaks to that drive for perfection.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
(1841-1919)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was another famous impressionist and a contemporary of Monet. His work was originally rejected for exhibition so he, Monet, and some other artists went renegade and held their own exhibition in 1874. For the most part, the critics poo-pood the work of these artists (oh critics), but Renoir’s work was pretty well received.
Renoir eventually got in with the establishment and became successful. Fame ran in the family; one of his sons was an actor, another a filmmaker, and a third a ceramic artist. An interesting fact is that Renoir and Monet often painted the same scenes together so there are pairs of paintings done by the two of them.
Mary Cassatt
(1844-1926)
Born in America, painter and printmaker Mary Stevenson Cassatt lived in France and was considered one of the three great women of impressionism. She was a feminist who advocated for equality and painted scenes depicting the lives of women, especially the connections between mothers and children.
Cassatt and her female contemporaries were said to have “personified the “New Woman”, but maybe they were just more forcefully insisting that the world allow them to be themselves. Cassatt actively supported the feminist movement, which is great, but more importantly she lived and created as freely as she possibly could, which is truly inspiring.
Pablo Picasso
(1881-1973)
Spaniard Pablo Ruiz Picasso was good at many different forms of art, including painting, sculpting, and writing. He co-founded the Cubist movement and was one of the first to work with collage. Picasso was a free spirit who liked to explore with his art so his style changed over time and his work is often broken down into periods.
Picasso was one of those people who knew you could be a great artist and enjoy the material aspects of the world. He achieved both fame and fortune during his lifetime while getting to do what he loved most.
Salvador Dali
(1904-1989)
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali I Domenech was a Spanish painter and a member of the surrealist movement. He’s responsible for one of the most famous surrealist paintings, The Persistence of Memory.
In the 1930s, other artists tried to label Dali as a fascist. He did not see himself that way. In fact, it may be that Dali understood the absolute importance of letting other human beings be themselves rather than trying to force them to be like you. We’ll each have to draw our own conclusion.
Frida Khalo
(1907-1954)
Frida Kahlo is one of Trav’s favourites. She mixed autobiography and reality with fantasy using a folk art style to create her well-known paintings. Kahlo was initially going to go to medical school but during her long recovery from a terrible bus accident she rediscovered her love for art.
Kahlo had international success but her life wasn’t easy. Painting is probably what kept her going; it was her way of understanding her experience and processing the challenges she went through. Today she is celebrated for her body of work and her insistence on being her self.