An Artist Eye

I was helping my son put together a PowerPoint presentation last night for a talk he is required to do in one of his college classes today.  My expertise is computers and software programs.  I am pretty good with PowerPoint amongst  many others.

What I learned is that I am very limited in my knowledge about art.

As we reviewed the the 15th century piece he would be discussing, I realized beyond the basics, I had no idea what the painting symbolized.  I am not an artist, and therefore I lack the artists eye.  I could learn the lingo and go to a museum and ramble off a few terms that may make it sound like I know what I'm talking about, but I would only be a pretender.  Any true artist, would see right through me.

  

As we prepared the discussion in the above painting, I was fascinated with the things I simply would never notice unless someone, a true artist, had explained them to me.  Beyond space and balance and symmetry (which I confess to know very little about beyond the words themselves), there is so much else. For instance, the Oranges on the window sill.  I learned that because wood has very limited reflectivity that the artist used the refractory light from the oranges to create the light on the wood just as they would in real life. I was baffled by the symbolism of the painstaking detail in the mirror and the frame around it. Or of the single lit candle in the chandelier.  Or even the most obvious, of the woman's fashion. Can you see the miniscule detail in every hair on the dog.  They all have meaning to an artist and once you understand them, the significance and your understanding of the painting is forever changed.

I am in awe of the artist eye, their ability to find beauty and detail beyond the surface.  But even more amazing to me if the artist ability to create a story with symbolism and meaning purely from their imagination as Van Eyck did in this painting.  No models, no scene to draw on, simple imagination. Astounding.

Artist are truly a gifted minority. Their minds work differently than the academic and they see and appreciate so much more in the world around them.