Art today covers so many things. The choices that you have are endless, so there is something to suit everybody’s taste. So much we can learn about it from looking at the Masters. However, you can appreciate art even if you are a beginner to it all.

The Japanese and Chinese seem to know quite a bit about the subject. These orientals are clever enough to write and paint with their brushes. They usually use brushes with a bamboo handle, the brush itself tapering to a fine point. You also find that most of their work is actually only done in black and white.

These brushes go on to encapsulate interesting fine works, fragile silk paintings and yes, of course, calligraphy. Obviously this takes me back to the fantastic paintings of Zen. He often used an ink over a wash. These seem to be painted with a delicacy.

The long fine brushes they use seem to create lovely flowing works of art which appear so true to form and give out the freedom of movement. Naturally this works well on silk. The trees and waters are expressed well like this.

So what do we know about Expressionism? How does one describe this type of work to a beginner? I actually see it as a way of letting your inner emotional state run free. But I stress that this is my interpretation of it.

To the eye of a beginner particularly, I am sure this art form would appear to seem unbalanced and even distorted, with unusually created shapes. Take Van Gogh for instance.

How often we all admire the works of Monet and his wonderful landscapes amongst other pictures. Interestingly enough they appear as a series of dots and dashes which then form the picture. This is called Impressionism.

If you go back to about the 19th Century this is about where it started. This style is good for landscapes where the light makes such a difference to the actual scene.

Let us consider Still Life paintings now. Are they easily achievable? I think not. They appear so easy on the eye. Probably because we all recognize the typical types of subjects that are used for this. How often do we stop and think how talented artists are?

Just because we recognize them, doesn’t mean they are easy! Really you do need a good background first to work from to enhance your work. The 17th Century Dutch Masters started something! Grapes in a bowl, with a glass of wine, you get the picture!

Now to the regular night-time scenes found in gay Paris created by the likes of Toulouse-Lautrec. How he loved all this and brought the subjects all to life for us and into our homes as posters etc. showing the bawdy lifestyle of the local artists and burlesque in the dance halls.

What about Monet who produced such greatly coloured and inspired landscapes, and natural artistic scenes. Yet he did not stop at this as he also loved doing very amusing caricatures mainly of his friends.

There is so much that could be said about these artists and their foresight and actual talent. These are just a few I have named but I could also add Matisse, Picasso, Constable, and many more.

For those who like art, prime examples to be recommended are to be seen all over Barcelona in the works of Salvador Dali, which seem to spread all over this city. To look at these one surely feels his brain must have been overloaded.

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