Rand Kline ~ List of Influences and Inspirations

Influences And Ideas

This is a quick overview of some favorite artists, with some images.

List of favorite artists generally in order:

List of favorite painting characteristics:

I looked through a large folder of images of my favorite paintings saved on my hard drive. I tagged these images with characteristics, then tabulated the characteristics. Here is a list of characteristics of my favorite paintings in order, by frequency of the characteristic found in my favorite paintings.

  1. Monochromatic 32 (Whistler, Lavery, Dewing, Vreedenburgh, Chase, Caballero, Cuming)
  2. Two Women 17 (Degas, Laura Knight, Dewing, Benson, Vettriano, Curran, Maas, Leyendecker, etc.)
  3. Young Woman 11 (Lavery, Parkes, Whistler, Domergue, Vermeer, Balthus)
  4. Cast Shadows/Reflections/Light Patches 10
  5. Strong lines 9 (Vettriano, Parkes, Vermeer, Canaletto, and Edelfelt)
  6. Dramatic Sky 8 (Maufra)
  7. Strong Shapes 7 (Vermeer, Mead Schaeffer, Degas, Rockwell)
  8. Distance effects 7 (Hassam, Unterberger)
  9. Soft, blended, or misty edges 6 (Corot, Lavery, Dewing, Inness, Unterberger)
  10. Dramatic Contrast 6 (Corot)
  11. Dramatic Water 6 (Vreedenburgh, Corot)
  12. 'Sexy Woman' 6 (Liepke, Carson, Parkes)


Small Selection of Random Favorite Painting Examples:

Most of the example images below have elements that relate to my paintings. For example, an angel wrestles a the swan in the Michael Parkes image. Many of his paintings involve the angel and animal natures together. Unfortunately I have zero confidence that I can paint any animals as well as Parkes.

You can also see the church bell tower in the Vermeer painting. I incorporate these towers liberally in my paintings, although my bell towers are round in the Italian style i.e. in Venice. Vermeer's painting also appears to show use of Raw Umber for a neutral mid-dark tone, which is well in harmony with the sky color.

Favorite artists that I've omitted from these images include Vettriano and Vreedenburgh. I like both of these artists for their style, colors, and restful composition. Vettriano also mixes class with sexual undertones, which is compelling.

As a huge fan of Tonalism, I have to like the godfather, James McNeil Whistler. But somehow Whistler's work doesn't do much for me emotionally or mood-wise. It's mostly just the tonal colors. My favorites by him are the pastels of women and of Italy. Boudin is similar. I love Boudin, with his class, fashions, and color handling, but the paintings don't move me beyond artistic appreciation.


John Lavery - The Tennis Party 1885


Ferdinand Heilbuth, Landscape With Two Sitting Women


Michael Parkes


Albert Chevallier Tayler - Trying Them On 1892


Antoine Calbet


Detail of the sky in Vermeer, View of Delft


Thomas Wilmer Dewing, "The Fishing"


Franz Richard Unterberger


Michael Carson - "Secrets"