I will definitely need the readers’ help on this subject because to make a statement and explain my position on the subject can only give one artist’s opinion. I have always been a representational artist of nature and the landscape, in fact, I have only recently fully understood the purpose and beauty of abstract or modern art.

My first and basic description of art is at its most simple form it makes you feel something, I don’t care if you are disgusted, frightened or moved to tears but something needs to connect from the canvas to the viewer. I realize this is where we are all different, I guess a spot on a canvas does something different to some or starts a conversation between art collectors or lovers-this to me is not what I call art.

The first and oldest premise of art was to record for posterity, somewhat like photography is to the news person, artists of old were hired to record wars, religious descriptions and the news and happenings of the day. I believe this purpose, however skilled and talented the artist is has been somewhat watered down by the lack of need, cameras and the news media and even the camera phone have not replaced but definitely challenged the artist that records time to be of great skill and detail. This is not necessarily the painting a collector hangs in his house or even collects at all but it is a necessary purpose for the artist of today.

The next and somewhat connected purpose of creating has opened up new doors in recent in the field of forensics-drawing from the remains of victims, sketch artists that can capture the portrait of someone from the description of a witness and of course the court room artist that enhances the story of a court case. Fit in this same avenue is the graphic designer that illustrates the story, helps to illustrate processes for medical or product instructions, the purpose mentioned so far is all within the realm of reality and aims to capture what truly exist without the deviation of ideas, emotions or statements of our living condition.

There is art for the sake of beauty, just the basic or even abstract depiction of a scene or abstract pattern. This way of creation captures what exists or draws simply from experience, emotion and feeling and creates what will be sought by interior decorators, it makes a statement of beauty and is approachable to the general public, there may or not be lacking of emotion or feeling but the collector is looking for something they can look at and feel what they bring to the subject, the artist is somewhat secondary in the process because the viewers feelings or memories have to do more with the image and the colors rather than the intangible feeling the painting or work evokes.

After an artist can depict what he or she sees, they can either duplicate or expand on that image to show the viewer not necessarily what exists but what the artist feels or sees. I have experienced this in few abstract artists for my tastes, again all opinion, but when the abstract or figurative artist captures an image or feeling from an intangible source and the viewer is able to enjoy that which the soul of the artist has created this is an amazing and intimate experience. Again the landscape stops being just a landscape and touches something that the viewer has taken directly from the artists palette of colors or the style in which the artist leads the viewer through the image. In my opinion when an artist captures the intangible, nothing has to be explained, it just touches the viewer and takes them somewhere where the artist dwells and this to me is the most complicated process of art because you are not just capturing an image you are creating a feeling-that which can not be explained or described. When someone sees a beautiful landscape and instead of feeling happy, they feel disturbed or sad-you have captured something that is deeper than simply paint or medium, the artist lives inside that work and the viewer is allowed to actually know who created it .

So here is where the reader comes in-what do you  look for in a painting? For the creative-what do you seek to show the viewer and what is true artwork to you? This could be a great artistic conversation.