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Why we all should learn to paint.
So as I’ve mentioned, I’m taking an art history class at the local community college. It’s more work than I anticipated: in addition to the readings, there’s the compulsory museum visit, a couple...
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Slow art.
We had dinner last night at the home of a friend who had clearly taken his time about the preparations. He had marinated the steak since the previous morning. Spread and chilled the cake frosting for...
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What’s love got to do with it? Falling for a painting.
What interests me about what Alain de Botton says about art in his Religion for Atheists begins with the reverence we tend to feel in museums. You know what I mean, right? You stand before a really...
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Meeting a painting in the eye.
So I’ve been thinking about looking, specifically about how to make the best of your time before a work of art. You know, let’s say you’ve saved your pennies, you’ve gotten yourself across the...
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Looking: A how-to guide (part 1)
I’m still thinking about looking, about what exactly should be going on in my head when I’m looking at a work of art. John Armstrong‘s Move Closer: An Intimate Philosophy of Art gives some clues,...
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Looking: A how-to guide (part 2)
Okay so we’re talking about what to do when you look at a work of art — how to get to know the work. I’m using John Armstrong‘s Move Closer: An Intimate Philosophy of Art as my primer (you might too:...
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Looking: A how-to guide (part 3)
My last two posts have been about how we can get the most out of looking at a work of art (see here and here). We’ve talked about daydreaming with the work, allowing the work to call up memories and...
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Why bother?
All this talk about how to go about looking at a work of art (here, here, and here) begs the question: Why bother? I mean, it sure seems like art appreciation takes a lot of time and energy, right? Is...
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Zen mind, art mind
I recently read E.H. Gombrich‘s A Little History of the World, which led me to his classic, The Story of Art. I highly recommend them both. Each reads like a children’s book — but the kind of...
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How to See Museums
Reblogged from theartpour: In museum heaven, we come and go as we please, and pull up a little chair and sit in front of one painting. For twenty minutes, for an hour. We would study, notice, copy,...
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Bingeing on Botticelli, part one
Okay I’ll be honest. The main reason I wanted to go on this Italy trip, other than the food, is the Uffizi Gallery. And when we’re in the Uffizi Gallery, I’m going to head straight for the...
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My eyes be opened wider.
If I had my life to live over again, I would ask that not a thing be changed, but that my eyes be opened wider.” — Jules Renard I ran across this quote at Robyn Graham’s lovely photography blog, here....
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Venezia!
Well here I am in the highly improbable location of Venice! I’m pretty exhausted and damp from walking around in the rain all afternoon gaping at the scenery, but I wanted to report in real quick that...
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Moorish doormen
The view during dinner! I haven’t been able to check in for a couple days—long days and nights mostly spent wandering around Venice in the rain trying to find our way! Yesterday we took a trip to...
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A new way of looking.
“One’s destination is never a place but a new way of looking at things.” – Henry Miller One of the reasons I went to Italy was to see the great works of the Italian Renaissance not as color plates but...
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