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