Close up to a painting

How to spot an artist at an art exhibition?

They'll be the ones with their noses about half an inch away from the pictures.

It's not a great way to see a painting but artists want to be able to get that close because then they can see the technique. For the non artist it can be a bit of a shock to see just how crude it all looks when you get near to even the most famous of works. It just becomes a mass of blobs and streaks and you begin to wonder whether you might just have been better to have stuck to looking at them in books. But the painter gains much from such chances. They get to understand how the artist built up the work. What came first? Was it quickly painted, wet paint into wet paint or does it become clear that days elapsed between those various layers. One of the great myths about impressionism is that the pictures were hurriedly executed out in the field, all in a rush. Close inspection soon shows that for most of these pictures it simply wasn't so.

So here's one of my own with some close ups included. Early(ish) on a June morning about a month before the start of the regatta. The new floating grandstand is in place and the pontoons that make up the work platforms are still to be seen.....and it's horribly, horribly splodgy! : )

Take care.......