Quent Cordair Fine Art

If you aren't already aware of Quent Cordair's wonderful gallery, I invite you to visit it immediately; it's the site of some of the most lush and beautiful artworks I've encoutered in a long time.

A longtime fan of fantasy art by the likes of Michael Whelan and Keith Parkinson, I hardly needed an introduction to the merits of Romantic Realism in painting or sculpting human figures. It's always been my favorite school, and, well, if dragons aren't exactly realistic, at least they're very "realistic" dragons!

The real benefit I gained from visiting Quent Cordair was that I now truly understand how something as apparently prosaic as a still life can be romantic and inspirational.

A good still life, to me, produces a very distinct physical sensation. I cannot look at Alfredo Gomez's Still Life on a Rustic Table without my mouth watering for the juicy and succulent fruit, or wanting to run my fingers over the rough and patchy table. Just seeing this painting is like a lightning strike, jolting me into sharp and focussed perception when my mind might have been drifting.

There is nothing quite so wonderful as the sensation of absolute clarity brought on by a painting of this kind.