What Draws a Viewer (You) to a Painting?
SGHolland
What makes a painting feel alluring to you?
I’m curious as to what is the “sex appeal” of certain kinds of art.
I’m not talking about subject matter.
I’m asking about visceral appeal of the marks themselves: Are they lavishly applied? Or minimally applied? Is the medium thick and pasty or thin and runny? Or both! Is the design detailed or simplified — is it calming or exciting?
How do the colors make you feel?
Obviously, “different strokes for different folks” applies here.
But what is it that tickles a person’s fancy? Is it the statement or the attitude brought forward by the painting? Is it the evidence of the artist’s involvement? Is it familiarity (as in “Oh I always like this artist’s work.”)
For me, it has to do with the marks and what they express about the artist’s personal experience as they put down the marks. Not the “data” so much as why the data is delivered in a certain way.
I personally love when I can see evidence of the human hand. I like the thickness or thinness of each stroke and evidence of the artist having been there making that mark. I find my eyes and brain traveling over a painting as if over a landscape with tell-tale footprints here and there that say that someone was there and they were headed in a certain direction. Guessing the reason may have something to do with it.
Also I want to see how this painting is not like any other. If all the artist’s work looks pretty much the same, I am uncomfortable — I don’t want the artist to be knocking off paintings by scheme and technique. I don’t blame them for wanting to paint what sells, but I don’t like it if it looks like paint-by-formula.
I want to think that the person attached to that hand had his whole focus in the making of the painting. Was he/she really present in the making of statements in paint, or was it a performance of something routine that was just coming out of the brush from long practice? Like a carnival act? If the mark seems made with the intention of maintaining a “brand”, it affects me negatively. It implies a lack of earnestness. It hints at a boredom, as if the energy is sapped and jaded. Like flipping pancakes or making widgets.
I want to see evidence of a fresh and engaged eye and feel an energy behind the artist’s work on the painting.
I’d love to hear what other viewers love to see. What draws them into a painting? What makes them decide to look at that particular one, in an exhibit, for instance?
What do galleries look for when they review a portfolio?
Do private buyers look for the same thing? Interior Designers?
Wondering, Susan G Holland ©2017
