Art and the Working Author

If you read my blog posts here, on the Teatime Tattler, or on History Imagined, you will have noticed they are frequently illustrated with paintings. They provide period atmosphere and imagination starters. Since the Dangerous Works, Dangerous Secrets, and Dangerous Weakness are all set during the late Georgian period of English history (also know as the Regency period), it is easy to find art work in the public domain.

Art is dear to my heart.  As an elementary school student art history was a favorite subject. About once a month we got little prints of famous paintings with information about the painting and the artist on the back. The nuns taught us how to view the art of various periods with educated eyes. Those lessons never left me. When we travel, we haunt the great galleries seeing up close images I’ve only known in reproduction before. Using art to enhance posts is a joy.

There are a number of sites for public domain images but my preferred source is Wikipedia Commons. The most useful searches/categories for me are usually Portraits 1800s and Regency Revival Genre. Each image has provenance and other details about terms of use so I know when it can be freely used. I try to credit the artist whether it is public domain or not.

My new favorite category is Paintings of Naval Battles.  This past weekend I wrote an article on the Barbary pirates that I hope to submit to InD’Tale magazine as part of my promotion campaign for  Dangerous Weakness this fall. When I searched for images, I found not only some images of pirates but also some spectacular naval paintings. I decided to set up a Pinterest board, Barbary Corsairs. I suspect readers will be seeing a lot of these in coming weeks.

Perhaps another time I’m write about covers.

The Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth by Thomas Luny, 1820