I am asking the question what is art? Who decides what it is and if it is any good or not. By art, here I mean painting, either in water colours or oils or some other materials.
Until a month ago, may be a bit longer I had not volunatarily picked up a paint brush and wanted to paint. Since then I paint most days, because I really enjoy doing so and have gone from just a few paints to an easle and a full set of paints and brushes.
Now some people think you need lessons to learn about perspective and how to blend the colours and how to use washes and all sorts of other things. True for some it might be useful to have lessons and be taught these things, but really is it necessary? I am not sure about that at all.
I see many great paintings and I go wow that is great and some of them have a real photographic quality about them, that makes it hard to know the difference. Some painters get so good that you have a moment where you pause and have to think is that a real person or a painting. Other people just mix colours and don't seem to have thing specific in mind while they are doing it and to me some look a complete mess and others can really trigger an emotional response. So which of these are the correct way to do things? The answer must be that there isn't a correct way.
So what about me, what do I think art is? Well for me, it is something that comes from deep within your soul, that your heart feels and your eyes respond to. It is not done to please others, or even for them to like, although if they do then it is nice. My personal opinion is that art is for you, from you. It is your way of seeing and interpreting what you feel and see as only you can do. Yes, as you go along, you learn what looks correct and what doesn't, yet that correction is only your correction alone and it really doesn't matter what others think.
So Art is really simple, it is an expression of the soul.
