✨The Exact Moment I Felt like an Artist✨

University of Oslo psychology professor Stine Vogt, PhD studied the reactions of nine psychology students and nine art students. Each viewed a series of 16 pictures while a camera and computer monitored where their gazes fell. She found that artists’ eyes tended to scan the whole picture, including empty expanses of ocean or sky, while the non-artists focused on objects, especially people. Perception (Vol. 36, No. 1).

What were these artists seeing that others did not see? They were looking at the structure of the scene and how the elements related to each other. They were noticing the colors and how they played together. Maybe they were also noticing the lines and how they led their eye throughout the painting, finally resting on the center of interest, the people. They were seeing the big picture. 

Use of all five senses is surely important for a more creative and fulfilling life but seeing may be the most important sense for the artist. In fact, it may be pivotal in determining the success of an artist. And here’s the kicker, the key for a beginning painter is not seeing more (ie: all the little details about a scene) but seeing less.  When we cut through all the noise of the scene to see the essence of its structure - its line, shapes, colors, and values - we can then start to transfer that essence onto a canvas with paint. And learning all the other bits and pieces of how to paint come more easily when we know how to see.

PS The moment I realized I was seeing differently was the exact moment I really felt like an artist.