| A few years ago I had the good fortune to visit | | | | often seen in works alluding to something higher |
| Barcelona for a week and feast my eyes and | | | | or deeper but lacking any solid foundation. How |
| heart on that city's rich visual heritage. During this | | | | can I say this? Well I can only go on my inner |
| time I visited the Picasso museum, which | | | | feeling when I look at art and if a piece moves |
| chronicles his life by displaying drawings, paintings | | | | me then I am grateful and encouraged, and if it |
| and sculptures selected from his prolific output. It | | | | doesn't move me, then I move on.I would like to |
| does appear true that in his youth he could draw | | | | recommend Masaccio (1401-1428) to anyone that |
| as well as many a master before him. | | | | has not heard of him. He is regarded as the first |
| `Conventional' in execution, his early drawings are | | | | great painter of the Italian Renaissance and |
| testament to his huge talent and skill, which he | | | | greatly influenced those who came after him. I |
| used in various ways throughout his career.As | | | | love his work not because of his ground-breaking |
| Picasso went through life, he seemed to be | | | | use of perspective, but for the power and |
| searching for a way to draw like a child again and | | | | emotion that underpin them. Two of his pictures |
| produce works that had the simplicity and | | | | that move me most profoundly are frescoes |
| spontaneous magic of a child's creation. However, | | | | painted for the Brancacci Chapel, Italy. They are: |
| there is a period in his life around 1922-23 when | | | | `Saint Peter Baptizing' and `The Expulsion of Adam |
| he produced the works that I love the most. I | | | | and Eve from Paradise'. These contain a volcanic |
| have a card entitled `Mother and Child', a | | | | energy that simmers and boils, barely contained |
| reproduction of a Picasso whose original is | | | | within the painted surface of the works. It came |
| currently in the Baltimore Museum of Art that is | | | | as no surprise to me that he was a deeply |
| so beautiful it almost makes me weep to see it. | | | | spiritual person and his religious works reflect this. |
| It shows two figures so utterly at ease with each | | | | In contrast, many of those who came after him |
| other, in a soft and tender exchange that it | | | | produced work that was technically more |
| conveys perfection in contentment and mutual | | | | advanced and refined but lacking spiritual depth. |
| self-absorption.Softness and tenderness are two | | | | Michelangelo had power, Raphael had refinement, |
| qualities that actually rarely appeal to me in the | | | | Leonardo had vision, but Masaccio had Purity and |
| art world, which is funny as these heart qualities | | | | for me, Purity winsEd Silverton is an artist from |
| often come to the fore when I'm trying to do | | | | Bristol. He studied art at Bristol College and works |
| something myself. Maybe it's because so much of | | | | as a freelance artist specialising in ceramics and |
| what is in the art- world does not appeal to me | | | | pottery. His work embodies beauty and simplicity. |
| that I welcome the `justice-light' aspect of | | | | His art is influenced by his meditation teacher Sri |
| powerful art. I imagine it cutting through the dross | | | | Chinmoy who is also an artist himself. |
| of mediocrity and soppy sentimentality that is | | | | |