Feeling in art

[Jenny Hunter]

Hi, Diane, and everybody,
I agree with you about Picasso's work and Van Gogh's. (I, too, have seen
both for myself) Picasso did appear to make others suffer as opposed to
suffering himself and his paintings, though wonderfully innovative when
first seen, are rather devoid of feeling, while Van Gogh clearly
suffered a tremendous amount in his life and his paintings did reflect
his moods and feelings. The desire to produce 'new' ways of painting
seemed to dominate Picasso, but Van Gogh seemed to paint because he
passionately loved his subject matter or wanted to show himself to the
world in his self portraits warts and all. I, too, love Van Gogh, while
Picasso I admire but don't feel any connection with as an artist. I
think it's because I find Van Gogh so embraceable in his paintings, a
vulnerable, hurting, passionate and loving man in his heart. Picasso, I
don't find loveable but I do appreciate his genius as an artist. There's
a huge gulf between these two painters but both were marvellous at their
chosen craft.
I'm not sure I agree with you that most artists peak between 30 and 50,
at least, I hope that's not the case otherwise I'm past my peak :-)))
It's true the older you get the more settled your life becomes, but you
can still have a fire inside you which makes you want to express
yourself. I'm biased, but I think that many young artists' work is
rather shallow simply because they don't have much experience of life
and are just trying to produce eye catching or shocking images rather
than something which really touches the viewer. The art world does not
readily take on older artists because most are seen as having a limited
future, even though their work might well be much more powerful than
that of the young who are still developing. I hope that will change in
time because the world of culture and the arts will be a lot poorer if
only the young, or established artists, are shown in the influential
galleries as they are now.
What I am envious of is the amount of canvas and paints Picasso and Van
Gogh had to paint on and with! :-)) To end on a lighter note :-)) I
would love to paint as prodigiously as both these men but I can't afford
to :-))
Also, to Daaks, I got to your site after reloading. I found your colours
and textures beautiful, your pictures were certainly not pornographic,
erotic, yes, but not the former. I wondered why you wanted to paint such
subject matter. I'm curious. Do you think it's because it's been a taboo
subject for so long and now artists are enjoying the new freedom to
express publicly human sexuality and the body in paintings previously
only seen in private? Several artists have written to me after seeing my
site and asked me to visit their sites. Several had erotic paintings,
mostly painted by men I might add, though this is not a criticism, just
a fact I noticed. One thing I did notice.. the pictures on your site
downloaded very slowly and I hope you don't lose viewers because of
this. In England our telephone bills mount up very quickly when you go
on line so it's not unusual to give up on sites which are slow at
downloading. Are you able to do thumbnail's to start with and allow the
viewer to go to a larger image if they wish? I had to wait five or six
minutes for your first gallery to come through and one painting 'Simon'
still hadn't got past the very top section when I had to move on to the
next one because my costs were mounting. It is the one thing which sends
people away from a site, and I'd hate to see you lose your viewers over
something which can be altered.
Lots of love,
Jenny.
--
The morning glory which blooms for an hour
Differs not at heart from the giant pine,
Which lives for a thousand years.
jen...@kpac.demon.co.uk

[Sheila Nagig]