APPRECIATING ART

Art, and an appreciation of art seems a very personal thing to me. It is like taste. We all have different tastes. I used to go to art shows and galleries and I could be finished browsing in a few minutes. Either I liked a painting or I didn't and I couldn't understand how some people could stand there studying pictures for long periods of time..... maybe it was the glass of wine they were sipping. I did like illuminated manuscripts, like the one above. And I could understand pouring over the details hidden in these......with or without a glass of wine. I have even done calligraphy courses and a course in book binding......and OK I have stayed in the odd monastery.


I did begin to appreciate art more when my responsibilities as a Head Teacher were expanded to include the Art Department. This is probably more due to the terrific art teachers who patiently tried to educate me and encouraged me to attend exhibitions on photography, famous artists and even famous glass sculptures. I grew to like Picasso and van Gogh very much. I also developed a real love of seventeenth century Dutch painters, such as Vemeer (one of his paintings pictured above).


My all time favourite painting is one by an Aboriginal artist, Lin Onus. The painting is very similar to the one above with the water lilies but instead of frogs there are fish swimming underneath, but they are in X-ray style. I guess I like the mixing of the two styles in one painting. If you don't know the work of Lin Onus then it is worth checking out.



My favourite artist is Paul Cezanne. Cezanne was a French artist who churned out some 1300 paintings during the 1800s. He has been described as "rude, nervous, and generally disagreeable". Though I only read this after I had decided he had something cheeky hidden in his art. I have seen some of Cezanne's original paintings in exhibitions in Australia from time to time. They do not change my opinion of him. Two of his paintings are pictured above)

A friend of mine who is a teacher and artist, and who keeps trying to gently educate me into what is good art, delighted me by giving me a gift of an old chair which she painted. The chair was done in a "Cezanne style". I can't hang it on the wall but it does occupy a special place in the house and brings me a lot of joy. Funny sometimes I do find myself sitting appreciating it for some time...... maybe I need that glass of wine.