What's your favorite painting/artist and why?

some amazing artists already mentioned here. I'd like to share some of my favourite artists/paintings/sculpture/arty architecture with you too.

I travelled to Madrid just to see several of my favourite paintings

This was the one that made me take the trip - Las Meninas by Velazquez (I was surprised to discover how small the painting is)
http://exterior.pntic.mec.es/fhua000...as-meninas.jpg

I also managed to see Picasso's Guernica on that trip too
http://homepage.mac.com/dmhart/WarAr...a/Guernica.JPG

I am a fan of the Dutch Masters - the delicacy of light in many of the paintings is just awesome.
http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=dutch+masters+paintings&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=0gZvS6X7PN7KjAehjvDrCg&sa=X&oi=image_result_g roup&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQsAQwAA

I was mightily impressed by Rembrandt's The Night Watch which is at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, mainly because it must be the biggest painting I've ever seen also because of that luminosity of light Rembrandt was so good at.
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/images/news/rijks_tefaf_wand_nachtwacht_final5%3Flarge&imgrefu rl=http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nieuwsenagenda/nachtwacht-ontrafeld%3Flang%3Den&usg=__rPhi4E5y33lQVBufkor724-wdd4=&h=320&w=427&sz=28&hl=en&start=13&um=1&itbs=1 &tbnid=TC39pjNqzX1OnM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bnight%2Bwatch%26hl%3Den%26clien t%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

Barcelona is almost an whole town art installation. Parc Guell is amazing and is one of those places that you absolutely must visit at least once in a lifetime.
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www-ma2.upc.es/~geomc/events/socg2002/parcGuell.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www-ma2.upc.es/~geomc/events/socg2002/ParcGuell.html&usg=__MpjHLrLiTaVeHTsQow0x3NP9o3A=& h=403&w=609&sz=90&hl=en&start=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid= tcysIAFW2PTBTM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=136&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dparc%2Bguell%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfir efox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

as is Sagrada Familia - also in Barcelona. Started in 1882 by Antoni Gaudi it is still being built and one of those places that you can go back to over the years and watch it's progress.
http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/index.php

Thus far Ingress and I haven't managed our usual trip to London at the start of the year to take in whatever exhibitions are currently showing and I don't think we will get a chance until after her Post Grad Cert. in Education (teacher training) is over. I particularly enjoyed the Annie Liebowitz retrospective at the NPG last year and Shibboleth at Tate Modern the year before.

I would just love to go to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Uffizi in Florence and of course the New York Guggenheim too.




apologies for the long links.