ART
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Art in Miniature
ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bulldancer
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Curious how many hobbies deal with items in
miniature. Perhaps it's the space constraints of
working in all those garden sheds. Miniature painting
has a long and glorious history of course, probably
dating first to the illuminated manuscripts that were
the stock in trade of medieval monks. Despite a few
dodgy decades after the advent of photography,
miniature painting is again going strong. This site
gives advice on materials, courses, finding a teacher
and buying and collecting miniatures. There's also
onsite inspiration in the shape of some delightful
pictures both medieval and modern.
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Art
www.wisecat.co.uk/art
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Whether you are looking for details of the latest
exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, a
catalogue listing for the Louvre in Paris, a
dictionary to explain to you exactly what chiarascuro
and picture plane mean, or simply a guide to what's
good to see on your trip to Glasgow, the tersely
titled Art is the site to click to. Links to sites
covering every aspect of painting and sculpture.
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Official Picasso web site, endorsed by his
son Claude, no less. Paintings are grouped
according to people rather than period.
There are lists of exhibitions and other
events here.
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See Monet on this site from the Boston Museum of
Fine Arts in America, which takes visitors on a tour
through the great impressionist's life and
work.
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A door to the net for artists and galleries. Sign
up for your own site or find links to organisations
and artists
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Everyone knows some - or at least one of the
Renaissance genius's work. Here are many more. Five
hundred years on, the left-handed vegetarian still
leaves artists, technologists and inventors
gasping.
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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
www.sfmoma.org
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Something of a work of art in itself, this website.
The SFMOMA is one of the world's greatest facilities
dedicated to modern art, with a superb collection of
painting and sculpture. Enter the website and you are
faced with a minimalist white page, with fast-changing
shots of the stunning museum building itself, its
modernist lines looking stunning against the San
Francisco skyline. Click further and you receive
thumbnails and rubrics on the collection itself.
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British Museum
www.british-museum.ac.uk
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The home page 'welcomes you to one of the greatest
museums in the world', and anyone who has marvelled at
the Bloomsbury leviathan's unrivalled collection of
artworks Classical and modern, from prehistoric and
Roman coins, through medieval carvings and Oriental
antiquities won't argue with that. This is an
excellent site in its own right, crammed with essays
and pictures. If you're planning a visit to the museum
itself, start your planning on the Internet.
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The Glass Painting Specialists
www.glasspainter.demon.co.uk
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Stained glass was once the sole preserve of medieval
monks labouring away in damp cloisters but time, and
technology move on. Professional glass painter Jane
Dunsterville has expanded her work with conventional
stained glass to include research into making the
whole process easier, cheaper and more accessible to
beginners. This site is the fruit of her labours. Be
inspired by examples of Jane's own work, including her
professional commissions, featured on the site, and
take a look at what others have come up with in the
Gallery section.
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Inside the Louvre
sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/wm/paint
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Excellent preparation for a visit to this auspicious
art gallery, or simply as education and entertainment
for those who can't make it to Paris. Inside the
Louvre not only lists all the paintings and sculptures
within the galleries, but allows you to take a look at
them and backs up your viewing with background
history, so there are biographies not just of the
artists themselves but of the movements they sprung
from.
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Stained Glass Warehouse
www.stainedglasswarehouse.com
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Definitely a hobby for those with a steady hand and a
keen eye, stained glass making isn't just about
producing 40ft high rose windows for the west end of
your local cathedral, but crafting miniature gems to
sit proudly on the mantelpiece. This site appears to
have been constructed by someone with an over-fondness
for sky-blue and purple, but we'll let that pass. An
excellent source of raw materials, and at reasonable
prices. Design ideas abound, and the best feature is
the stained glass search engine, routing you straight
to the pick of the sites worldwide.
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ART MUSEUMS
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By offering affordable posters and detailing
information on art galleries across the globe, this
impressive site successfully appeals to the art
enthusiast as well as those who don't know their
Hirst from their Hogarth. There is a guide to art
movements, biographies of leading artists and
recommended reading lists. All featured exhibitions
have pictures and descriptions so you don't have to
keep leaving the site.
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The Louvre
www.louvre.fr
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Don't worry, there's an English language version of
this website from the most famous of French art
galleries. This is an impressive resource including
lots of fast loading thumbnail images of the major
works stored in the Parisian gallery (you just click
on the images to pull up bigger more detailed
pictures). If you want to familiarise yourself with
the layout of the Louvre before you take a trip over
there give the virtual tour a whirl - it takes in the
obligatory Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo exhibits. All
the sections of the site are splendidly presented with
plenty of images from each of the seven main
departments in the gallery.
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The Museum of Modern Art
www.moma.org
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Even if you can't afford the trip to New York to
visit this museum take some time out to have a look at
The Museum of Modern Art's excellent website. The
design is fabulous and incredibly stylish. Exhibitions
are backed up by plenty of online information as well
as discussion areas and photographs of the exhibits.
The online store is a shopper's delight, full of
interesting and unusual gifts if you want to wield
your credit card. Or if that all sounds a bit pricey
you could always send a free electronic MOMA postcard
to a friend, featuring an image from the museum.
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Art.com
www.art.com
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Art.com is first and foremost a commercial site that
sells prints, posters, photos and lithographs, but
it's also a great resource for art lovers. The
reference section is impressive and includes a history
of twentieth century art, written decade by decade and
giving background on the artists, images of their most
famous works and, of course, the opportunity to buy
posters and prints of their work. The guide to museums
and galleries is sadly restricted to the US but the
dictionary of art terms is relevant no matter where
you are. And it's worth taking time out to browse
through the art work for sale - you're bound to end up
buying something from this massive collection.
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Van Gogh Museum
www.vangoghmuseum.nl
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This gorgeous looking site is packed full of images
from the Van Gogh Museum and, thankfully for us, is
presented in English as well as Dutch. This museum in
Amsterdam is home to the world's largest collection of
works by Van Gogh (including 200 paintings, 500
drawings and 700 letters). Many of the most famous
works are reproduced on the site along with works from
other 19th century artists including Gaugin and
Toulouse-Lautrec. Art historians should make the
excellent Van Gogh's Life and Times section of the
site their first stop.
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Worldwide Arts Resources
www.world-arts-resources.com
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Worldwide Arts Resources is a massive art search
engine providing links to artists, museums, galleries
and art history information housed on the Internet.
This really is a comprehensive resource; over 15,000
artists are listed in the artists' index (they're
sorted by genre of art) and there are thousands of
links to commercial and non-commercial galleries. This
site makes a fabulous starting point for any art lover
or art historian who wants to learn more about a
specific artist or a period of art; you can even get
the latest arts news emailed direct to your mailbox by
handing over your email address.
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National Gallery
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
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The biggest and most famous gallery in the country,
the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square will take you
at least a day to see on foot and the same could be
said of this sprawling website.
As well as all the usual practical information, the
gallery includes a stunning amount of detailed
explanations on the works of art therein. You can also
view many of the pictures themselves in a separate
window while another fascinating feature tells you the
story behind some of the more unusual items in the
collection.
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The Grove Dictionary of Art
www.groveart.com
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The Grove Dictionary of Art is a huge work of art
history and research published by Macmillan and
costing a minimum of £275. The really good news
is you can check out the online version of the
dictionary for absolutely free for 24-hours. Hand over
your email and contact details and you'll get a
password and username in return that gives you access
to 41,000 cross-referenced articles and over 12,000
links to images of works of art housed in galleries
all over the world. All aspects of the visual arts
from prehistory to contemporary paintings and
photography are covered in this gargantuan online
resource.
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The Tate Gallery
www.tate.org.uk
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Although the biggest Tate gallery is in London this
site also covers exhibitions on show in the Liverpool
and St Ives buildings, you also get the latest news on
the Tate London expansion work in the Bankside Power
Station (due to open May 2000). The Tate has worked
hard at getting its works into electronic format and
the web site is home to over 8,000 works of art,
ordered alphabetically by artists. If budgets permit
take a whirl around the Tate online store and check
out all manner of art-related products, from T-shirts
to stationery.
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