More important than a work of art itself is what it will sow. Art can die, a painting can disappear. What counts is the seed.
- Joan Miro -
I had been traveling for 7 months through Asia and it was my first day on a different continent. I didn’t know which adventures were still laying ahead, but that first day in the city of Buenos Aires I decided to visit the museum Bellas Artes. I stepped into one of the main halls, seeing this huge painting which looked so realistic from a distance, but showed all this fantastic abstract brushwork up close. The emotion in the painting moved me. It was Bouguereau’s ‘The first mourning’. I spent quite some time in front of that painting that day. When it was time to walk back to the hostel, I decided I wanted to become really good at this 'painting-craft' myself. If paintings can make such big impressions it must be a worthy endeavor.
Sensing the birches / oil on acm panel / 40x50 cm
To me the process of painting
is an exercise;
of being fully in the moment.
It shouldn't be done carelessly.
Every stroke should count and have meaning.
When done so,
a painting holds the energy
of the moment it was created.
It emanates through it.
.A photo can hold a certain energy,
but it pales in comparison
to the aliveness of a painting.
A painting is not just a picture;
a composition
done by a collection of brushstrokes of paint.
It's more than that.
It's a little bit of magic.
- Robert Munning -