A great artist can make beauty out of any medium, no matter how limited. 97-year-old Hal Lasko embodies this concept. Instead of painting with dozens of expensive brushes or high-end software suites, Lasko uses a tool most of us have used and abandoned years ago—Microsoft Paint from Windows 95.
These paintings are great. They combine a 8-bit primitivism with skilled use of color and composition. All created with that simple Paint program bundled with an almost two-decade-old Windows operating system. Lasko has severely impaired vision, but thanks to the ability to magnify on his computer, he can work on the details with ease.
Prior to discovering digital tools, Lasko worked as a graphic designer, a draftsman for the Army during WWII, and a typographer. Now retired, he focuses on his own digital art. As Hal says, "It's no longer work, it's fun."
That pretty much says it all.
Click play on this great mini documentary, The Pixel Painter, directed by Josh Bogdan and Ryan Lasko, and prepare to be charmed. Also, you can buy prints on his website! [Vimeo via This Is Colossal]