Showing posts with label flower. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flower. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

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?

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Smell All the Flowers...

One of the problems with photographing flowers is that it is so easy to get caught up in their sheer beauty through the viewfinder that it is easy to totally miss or ignore their other great attributes.

And one of these is the multitude of wonderful smells and fragrances you experience while "nose to blossom" when taking closeups like this one.

And it was this realization the other day that led me to re-think the old expression about "Taking time to smell the Roses".

In fact we should take time to smell all the flowers and experiences life presents us with.  Often it is easy to get caught up in one aspect of something and miss a lot of what life is just begging us to experience.

So the next time you start to focus in what you think is that single most important aspect of something take a step back... take a deep breath and enjoy the rest of what life has to offer!  :-)