Looking at a Painting

    

Have you ever looked at painting - I mean really looked closely? Examined the brush strokes up close? Looked at the colours and the different shades within each part of the picture? It doesn’t really matter what the picture is, although I must admit that I am quite partial to landscape, it’s how the artist has meticulous constructed his painting, his vision.

Stand back from the canvas and then stand back further. As you move back, the individual brush strokes lose their coarseness and start to smooth out to produce an even shade, and as you move back further the form of the image starts to become clear. The green shades magically become a field, and the blue the sky, or perhaps a lake – a bit plastic perhaps, but that change as you move back further.

Then the picture starts to gain life and depth. The colours no longer look uniform; you can see the subtle differences and shades. The pale bits in the sky suddenly become clouds and the trees have leaves. A little bit further back and there is movement. You can see that there is a breeze blowing from left to right and leaves on the trees look like they are in mid-sway. The smudge of yellow in the field is somebody’s hat, and the pale red is the shirt of her companion.

This is the magic of a painting. On their own the brushstrokes are simply a line of paint on a piece of canvas. But the artist has, through clever use of colour and an eye for the texture of their subject, made a group of colours into a picture that can draw you in and let you almost feel the scene in front of you. This is an awesome talent.

It doesn't matter if it's Lenoardo da Vinci, Reubens, Van Gogh, Monet, or Joe Bloggs from up the road who's never been heard of. They have the talent, and seeing it is one of the great joys of life.

Colour

              It’s everywhere and most of us could not imagine a world without it – so we take it for granted. It’s colour, and it is simply the refraction and reflection of light of different wavelengths. The sky is a pleasing blue because light is refracted through the atmosphere – can you imagine a sky of a different colour? Perhaps you could, but would it bring you the uplifting experience that comes with opening up the curtains in the morning and seeing a clear blue sky?

                You choose your car for its colour, your phone for it colour, you carefully choose the colours to paint your house, and so many more things as well. And what about the pleasing green of a nice lawn, the deep blue of the ocean, the bright white of a cloud against the sky, or the myriad of colours that flowers provide. You only have to look at a city to see what a lack of colour does. How many times have you walked down a street surrounded by grey buildings situated on grey streets, with grey footpaths, that suck the life out of the day? And then you go out of the city and there are fields of yellow canola, green grass, freshly ploughed brown fields, and the wildflowers growing by the side of the road. As soon as you are out of the greys your heart lifts and the day feels better.

                But colour is everywhere. Your workspace at wherever it is that you work is going to have colour. Even the mundane things like files have colour codes that, as well as making them easier to find, brighten them up. There might be a pot plant that brings a softness and colour to your area, your own choice of highlighter pen, as well as your favourite coloured ‘sticky’ notes.

                We all have a favourite colour(s). Colour lifts us, keeps us interested. Colour adds texture to life, and it comes in uncountable shades and hues. Colour makes art come to life, defines different sporting teams, defines national flags, makes people smile. Colour makes the world go round and is all too often overlooked. Colour is one of the joys of life.