Art Appreciation

'I'd like to have this piece. Please pack it for me. How do I make the payment?' Just the words that every artist longs to hear!

When someone willingly parts with their hard earned money to take an artwork home, the joy is real. For both the buyer and the seller. The buyer has got something to cherish and appreciate over time. The artist has found someone who is taken in by the creative effort and vision.

This is the validation we creatives work for everyday, isn't it?

Every artist spends solitary time and effort to create art. There are so many hours of self doubt and uncertainty, not just on the subject matter they choose but also in finding that elusive market acceptability. And then comes the mustering up of courage to let the outside world have a say in what is essentially a private vision.

Being at the receiving end of indifference is more often the case and it often leads to dejection. It is hard to keep working on a passion when the road ahead seems blurred.

For the artist, this is a journey with no specific destination.

How does one answer these soundless questions in the head?

'Does anyone care about what I make?'

'Am I good enough?'

'How much time, effort and money am I going to spend before I get some recognition and of course recover at least some if not all the expenses?'

'What is the point of it all?'

I am no expert on the formal expectations of art appreciation. I paint and write. Having just completed about a dozen showings of my paintings, my work has been at the receiving end of comments both good and otherwise, criticisms, viewer indifference, suggestions and general discussions that have sometimes left me bewildered. Sales happened too.

But are the sporadic sales enough to keep an artist going? No...but there is a lot more that happens when artists choose to go out into the world and show their work.

Once we artists teach ourselves to relax and enjoy the exhibition experience, we learn to observe activities happening around us. Such as…

Art collectors walking the art fair aisles with a casual air, and suddenly stopping for a closer look at a painting...

Another artist looking at a painting from a distance with screwed eyes [as artists are prone to doing especially to judge the effect of depth]. The meeting of the thumb and first finger revealing the approval and admiration that has just passed through their mind.....

A viewer sincerely telling the artist to stay with the theme and explore it some more...

A regular art fair visitor choosing to tell an artist that he/she has been observing and can tell the change and difference between the works currently displayed v/s those from a few years ago...

A viewer spending time and studying the artworks and then making the extra effort to have a conversation with the creator. A chat on 'What I liked and why v/s what was your thought when you did this?'.....

Viewers who strike a conversation with the artist and reveal their private thoughts or sometimes even personal information because the artworks reminded them of it...

Admirers who liked what they saw, taking the trouble to return after a while to have a one more look….

Invitations from other artists for future collaborations....

A gallery electrician who comes in to adjust the lighting and putting in that extra effort on a few artworks...

None of the above instances or other similar ones are likely to result in an actual sale. For the artist, these people are just co-travellers for a few steps on this journey.

But, such interactions give artists an immense sense of satisfaction and a feeling of time well spent. A feeling that they must have done something right. After all, ‘nothing comes from nothing….’

They are heartwarming experiences that will stay in the memory of the artist. Ones that will motivate them to get back to the easel!

These instances are art appreciation too!

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This post was published in Colour Canvas issue of 15th August 2022