Why We Love Art...

Last week I acquired my first original painting! Hardly a Monet… this oil on canvas (in the impasto technique) was found at a local arts and crafts shop. Its colors and the artist’s use of light immediately appealed to me so I took the plunge!

Over the past year or so I have developed a keen interest in paintings… especially by Impressionist’s such as Monet, Renoir and other members of the “Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs”.

During this time I have also been fortunate enough to do some traveling and have viewed some of their work at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Metropolitan in New York.

And although I have a few photographs by friends and photographers who’s work I admire… I have never owned an original painting. This is a new and exciting experience enhanced by the fact that I am continuing to try and learn as much as I can about the work of Monet and Renoir.

But visits to such places as the Pushkin and the Met can only be occasional. And I will never have the resources to own a Monet! )))  But this simple vase of flowers by an unknown artist also makes me happy. It makes me smile inside and encourages me to contemplate and reflect on things besides the obvious.

And whether a work by Monet, Renoir or Vermeer (who wasn't an impressionist but who's work I also like) hanging in a famous museum or by an unknown artist who's work never makes it beyond the coffee shop walls... isn't this a large part of what all art aspires to achieve?