French archaeologist Marc Azéma thinks that some of the ancient paintings found on the walls of caves, such as the Chauvet caves in France, may have been very early attempts at animation, or efforts to convey a sense of motion, particularly those featuring animals.

By the by, a film well worth looking at on the subject of ancient cave paintings, and the Chauvet caves, is Cave of Forgotten Dreams, made by German film director Werner Herzog.

Via It’s Okay To Be Smart.

Lee Hadwin who is from Henllan, a village in Wales, possesses a reasonably unique talent… he can create artworks while asleep, usually after an evening at the pub.

Mr Hadwin, from the rural Welsh village of Henllan, said the nocturnal habit began at the age of four with scribbles on kitchen tables and developed into more intricate drawings and paintings from the age of around 15.

As with a caper like the theft of Moon rocks in 2002, what is the point of stealing famous works of art when the prospect of selling them is next to non-existent?

We assume that the same creativity that goes into making art would go into stealing it. Instead, the authors show us again and again how artless most art theft is. Art crime, you see, is a dumb crime. With masterpieces in particular, it’s virtually impossible to find a buyer for a stolen work. As the authors write: “A Rembrandt, real or imagined, is far harder to sell than it is to steal.”

A painting by Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci titled “Salvator Mundi”, translating to “Savior of the World,” which had been missing for centuries has recently resurfaced.

“The painting was forgotten for years. When it turned up at auction, Simon thought it was worth taking a gamble. It had been heavily overpainted, which makes it look like a copy. It was a wreck, dark and gloomy. It had been cleaned many times in the past by people who didn’t know better. Once a restorer put artificial resin on it, which had turned gray and had to be removed painstakingly. When they took off the overpaint, what was revealed was the original paint. You saw incredibly delicate painting. All agree it was painted by Leonardo.”

The painting goes on public show at The National Gallery in London, this November.

Paintings or artworks that convey a clear sense of depth, or perspective, are more likely to cause viewers to sway, maybe even wobble, if only very slightly though, according to an article published in the “Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts” journal.

In our first experiment, two abstract paintings by Maria Elena Vieira Da Silva (1908–1992) were used. Viewing the unaltered paintings induced greater body sway in participants than the cubist transformations of the same paintings in which depth cues were neutralized.

The discovery of film footage of someone seemingly engaged in a mobile phone conversation at the premiere of a Charlie Chaplin film in 1928, is not the only apparent instance of time travel that has come to light, and Tim Carmody, writing for Wired, has found evidence of at least another nine jaunts that people may have made through time.

I’m not sure I agree about the presence of an iPod in Paul Gaugin’s painting from 1891 though, the box shaped object thought to be a music player looks more like a packet of cigarettes to me… an equally futurist item nonetheless unless manufactured cigarettes were sold in packets towards the end of the nineteenth century that is.

A selection of work from the 120 artists invited by George Lucas to offer an interpretation of the “Star Wars” film saga, for another upcoming book release related to the movie series, Star Wars Art: Visions.

Korean born, US based artist Ik-Joong Kang, has produced 40,000 45cm x 45cm panels of artwork, which adorn the Korean Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai.

Bicycle wall painting.

You can learn a lot about an artist from the way they twist and contort the paper clips they paint…

Beginning as a formal exercise in direct observation, these paintings of paperclips have evolved to accommodate not only the lyrical possibilities of a manipulated paper clip but the distinct personality of the person doing the manipulating.