I wish I had money to give your site.
I'm not quite ready to discard all modern art - the primitive part of me likes primitive things sometimes - but as I read through your philosophy, I found myself wanting to pick up a sketch pad for the first time in 15 years.
When I was a teenager I drew as if my life and sanity depended on it. My favorite painters were always the realists, some of whom are featured on your site. I copied them incessantly and my own pieces reflected their styles.
When I went to college, I planned to study art and become a painter, but when I got there, I found the same disdain for the type of art I adored, and suddenly I started questioning if I were really an artist. I have always enjoyed some of the works of the modern painters, but it was not what I did. Unfortunately the overwhelming philosophy at my school was that Pollack and Picasso were masters, and it was strongly implied that people who enjoyed realism in style were the equivalent of copywriters. For years I have satisfied my creative urges through photography because it still recognizes the value to the soul of beauty.
I am so grateful to have stumbled onto your site, because it has confirmed what I always hoped: that there is room for more than one style of art - that those of us who would like to draw and paint the way the old masters did are not devoid of creativity.
As I mentioned, in my primitive moments I do enjoy the primitive aspect of some modern works, but thanks to your site I will no longer be enslaved by the notion that only they represent fine art.
Thank you and Kind Regards,
Rachel Barlow
