There are so many options for purchasing art that it is easy to
become overwhelmed with options. For example you can find simple
paintings at Marshall's, or their name brand cousins, like Marshall
Fields aka Macy's. There are paintings in small boutiques, galleries,
and of course all over the online world. If you are a super bargain
hunter you will certainly bump into artwork at garage sales, basements,
and estate sales. You may have gotten something from a friend too or a
family member may have passed something on to you. But, within all these
options comes the single most important issue, how is it that you are
supposed to narrow the field and make an informed decision regarding
your final purchase? Even more important is the concept that you may
need to decide again in the future, and if you just seemed to like the
painting without any rationale you will never be able to duplicate it
with another paintings and you will be hard-pressed to create a cohesive
art collection.
Initially when you look out at a painting, and
try to determine if this is the one you will buy, you need to forget
everything that exists external to the image. This means that it is this
painting that is in front of you that needs to determine if it has
value. Not a categorical system, or your friends, or the gallery owner.
The painting you are judging must stands on it's own merits. This is
also true for art that is not what you are seeking to buy--that is, it
will also fail only based on it's own conversation with you.
One
reason we can classify a piece of art without a starting point, or
'zeroing out the scale', is because the evaluation of the composition
and other niceties of the painting can be measured independently of
external things. Such as the golden ratio, or color scheme. None of
these analytical tools of painting assessment require a need for
baselines to tell us what the human brain enjoys.
If the artwork
you are looking at grabs your attention then the artist was effective in
creating a painting that teases the subtle nuances of the human mind.
This means that they must employ certain psychological and biological
tools to capture you within the painting.
The first thing that is
required is a very strong primary interest. This is because without a
strong entrance into the piece of art you will never give it more than a
glance. This primary interest uses the color theory tools of the
biological realm to create a sharp contrast between darks and lights in
one location. This type of tool forces your eyes to the painting.
Regardless of what the subject matter of the painting is. It is pretty
powerful when an artist says first look at my work, and then demands
thinking about it's subject. But, the great master artists design other
components into their works too. Such as the psychological concept that
humans tend to seek eyes to understand emotions right away to determine
threats. This is another inescapable tool for captivation. As a viewer
you will have no control when looking at a great work of art. It will
grab you and force you to look at it.
But, what happens to you
once you looked at the masterpiece laid out on the canvas in front of
you? You will be forced to move your eyes from the initial point to
another point on the painting. This movement is much harder for an
artist to do to you. It means that they have a cohesive canvas with a
single primary point of interest and then other subtle secondary
interest points. The secondary points can not compete with the doorway
into the painting. It is much harder to employ since you should actually
be zipping your eyes from one secondary point to another within the
painting. This zipping back and forth requires your eyes to never fly
right out of the canvas. In fact, some of the master artists had 3 or
more secondary points that they captivated you within. The lines of the
drawing help guide your eyes from one to the next. If a line of
sight--such as a tree line, fence, median of the road, knife on a table,
building roof-line, or shaft of sun--guides you right out the painting
or has something that crosses it your eyes will be gone from the artists
captivation.
This is very important to understand since this is
where the artists allows you a moment to grasp the 2, 3, or more
elements that form the subject area of this painting. You are given a
moment to think about them while having your eyes scroll from one to the
next in a repeatable pattern. But, what does the artist do after
introducing you to his subjects in the painting? He should be able to
give you an escape hatch to stretch a moment from the main subject. So
your eyes have been grabbed towards the painting, then the artwork
slowly guided you from point A to point B to point C right into an area
where the tones are all similar, the colors match, and there should be a
hidden gem that ties the painting together and gives you one of those
special moments. These moments are extremely important to you. It is
where you will say oh my god, or wow.
Functional MRI or fMRI has
conclusively shown that the 'ah ha' moment is a lot like the moment when
your brain gets a joke. It all fires in synchrony and you suddenly get
it. It is exciting, and refreshing to have your mind take a few
disparate items and then merge them in a new manner. This treat for your
mind is what the painting should be about to you.
But, what do
you seek afterward? The painting should now talk to you on a very
personal level. The true masters that have stood the test of time are
art that spoke to moments in human history that are repeated in cycles
and will exist in every generation. Thus allowing each new person
viewing the art to merge it with their current lives circumstances. This
is what will make the painting loved by everyone else, and this is what
will make is special to look at every day in your family room or
another prominent location. If it does not pass this test then the
painting is only good for your eyes, and will be difficult to express to
others the joy you inherited from this art piece.
Menachem (Mendy) Zimmerman is the owner of Exclusive Canvas Art
[http://www.exclusivecanvasart.com/index.com/]. His art speaks to the
mind as well as to aesthetics. His art typically hovers around the
Impressionistic, contemporary genres, and he typically includes figures,
music, and Religious Motifs from his early years. He works on private
commissions, public commissions, and has many of his works recreated in
low number lithographic reprints both on paper as well as canvas. He Blogs About Art
as well too, so be sure to check their first before purchasing an
artwork to ensure you are getting the best prices on the most amazing
art at Exclusive Canvas Art.
