Modern masters

My husband and I went on a double date tonight - the Fine Arts Center and dinner.  The FAC was hosting a traveling exhibit of Impressionists and Modern Masters - Monet, Picasso, Kandinsky, Chagall.  I was struck once again by these amazing artists' abilities to put on canvas (board, paper) what they see.  I cannot fathom how to I begin to do that.  

I love to look at great paintings from both far away and very close up - particularly with oil paintings.  There is something fascinating to me about the way the individual brushstrokes from just inches away seem so clearly to be just that - individual motions, dots of color, strokes of a brush.  From a few yards away, these separate entities come together to form a whole.  It was amazing observing this again tonight.  

And what is art, exactly?  Who defines what is great and what is just mediocre?  What is it that moves me and doesn't appeal to you?  Why does this one speak to my heart and that one leaves me cold?  I would love to understand that, but it must just be a complex mix of our individual eyes, how we see color, our experiences in the world, our personalities, what we value.  I would love to be able to put my world down on canvas  - to remember what I've seen and to express my emotions.  

Meanwhile, I'll just keep writing my thoughts down, taking my rolls of pictures, and enjoying the mastery of those whose hands can translate life to canvas.