These are all 16" x 20" acrylic on canvas. I like paintings with thick, textural brush and knife strokes. When they are hung on a wall, they can seem to be almost alive. They change as the highlights and shadows move depending the light source and the angle at which the painting is viewed.
There are at least two creepy stories about paintings coming to life. "The Road Virus Heads North" by Stephen King is about a writer (in a Stephen King story...no way!) who buys a painting at a yard sale. The figure in the painting seems to slowly turn towards him and he doesn't look friendly!
"The Road Virus..." is not too subtly inspired by M.R. James' "The Mezzotint". Here's a link to Librivox's mp3 recordings of M. R. James' Ghost Stories of an Antiquary which includes "The Mezzotint". All of these stories are great and Peter Yearsley is probably the best reader over there. If you haven't had a chance to explore public domain literature, I recommend checking out Librivox.org. Lot's of good stuff for free.
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There's another Stephen King story called "Stationary Bike" which is part of his "Just After Sunset" collection of short stories. It's largely about a painting that comes to life.... in a particularly Stephen King kind of way.
This story has stuck with me, which is funny because as I was initially listening to it (on audiobook), I wasn't necessarily that impressed. But he just kept going with it/developing it and by the end I could appreciate what he had done.
Yes. I read that one, too. Kind of the same reaction. I read about 2/3rds of it and wasn't really impressed. (It was published in Borderlands 5). A year or two later when it came out in the "Sunset" collection, I picked up the audio version and liked it much better.
"Duma Key" by King has a similar feel and paintings play a major role in that plot.
I wanted to add a question to today's post but left it off thinking there wouldn't be much interest. Thanks for your comment. I'll add the question here. Does anyone have any recommendations for other creepy painting/artwork stories or movies?
I keep thinking I'm missing a major one. What do you call "on the tip of my tongue" when it's just in my head. On the tip of my brain?
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