2D favorites

These pieces are inspirational to me.
The first is a painting by one of the Hudson River Valley school of artists, Thomas Cole.  I saw this when I was a high school student on a class trip to the Toledo Museum of Art.  I was extremely taken by it, especially for a high schooler.  Throughout the years I've gone from marveling over the technical accomplishments in the painting to enjoying the overall design of the piece, and now I'm much more into appreciating how artists convey feelings.
 

Thomas Cole, The Architect's Dream
 

This next piece is detail from a triptych by Hieronymous Bosch, called The Garden of Earthly Delights.  The piece in it's entirety depicts religious oriented concepts, such as damnation, falling from grace, etc.  I appreciate this work much more for it's grotesque creativity.  People are tortured and burned and displayed in tormented poses.  Something like this seems so modern to me, and would not be welcomed in your standard art gallery with warnings for the squeamish, however, it was painted sometime between 1490 and 1510.

Hieronymous Bosch, detail from Garden of Earthly Delights

And of course a Balrog of Morgoth!  I am a Lord of the Rings fan, and really enjoyed the imagery that Peter Jackson's movies put forth to appease the creative mind.  I read that the sound effect for the balrog's "roar" was created by grating together two pieces of cement block.  Wonderful!

A balrog!