Art - In the Eye of the Beholder

Is it all in the genes? I wonder. My Grandad was a very talented artist. I never knew him as he died before I was born. He died when my Mother was in hospital giving birth to my brother. I can't even begin to imagine how she felt, she was just beginning to get to know him.

I've seen some of his paintings. My Mum has two. One is the interior of a church and the other is a portrait of my Grandad's mother - my Great Grandmother. I have spent a great deal of time looking at these paintings. They are the closest I have ever got to a man who I would have given my right arm to meet because we have shared interests.

He was a physical education teacher at Winchester College up until he died from a heart attack in the gym. Before that he was in the Navy on great ships such as HMS Formidable travelling the world during the 2nd World War.

Apart from spending many hours producing beautiful paintings he also loved photography and reading.

While I share his interests I can't pretend to have his talent. My art is as you can see more abstract and I wonder what he would have said about it. He thought Picasso was taking the mickey with his paintings so I might have had a similar response from him. I'll never know.

What I do know is that art like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One man's meat is another man's murder. Cliche's but very true. I am fascinated by all forms of art mainly because it tells me about people and people fascinate me. Sometimes I can't explain how my art takes the form it does when the paint hits the canvas. Something else takes over. It sounds a bit airy fairy but art is very much tied into the psychology of the individual whether they understand it or not.

When Grandad decided to paint a picture, he studied his subject carefully, spent time preparing and deciding how and what to do. I know that from what I've been told and it is obvious from the careful arrangement of his paintings.

When I decide to paint a picture my decisions are made through colour, texture and forms that capture my imagination. We are very different but in the end we are doing the same thing a generation apart.