As a reader, I’ve found that characters aren’t the words on a page, but the picture in your head. As a writer, I continually learn that those words need to be the perfect mold of brand and subtly to reflect one single person in a world of billions. Suddenly, the picture in my head seems so precious. I’ve always challenged the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words”, because there are far more words attached to a great picture, and so many things in those great pictures that words can’t articulate. Artists give not only their version of a scene, but the emotion the carry to it. I’ve always been interested in open ended things, the things that we can imagine in a painting. Art is a flicker of emotion that ignites when we attempt to explain it. Within the realm of realism in these paintings, we see artists creating characters with limitless words.

“Vantage” by Katherine Fraser is an opportunity to create. The warm, clean glow of the painting gives us hope for the sweetly dressed girl, searching. She could be waiting for her boat to touch ground on a home she has been missing for months. Or she could be searching a roof top in a grandiose game of hide-and-seek. Fraser cultivated a full-fledged novel in a 46 inch by 56 inch canvas.

Warren Keating’s painting above feels like an intimate moment at the heart of a man. A broad stride on a sunny day could be leading this man to a café nestled between the Eiffel Tower and his home. Maybe the touch of red on his deep black suit is a nod to his daughter’s favorite color, and he’s meeting her on her birthday. Maybe it’s just a walk in the park. The ‘maybes’ can last for days with Keating’s “White-Haired Man Wearing Red-Striped Scarf, Paris. “ To hang it on your wall would give days of contemplation about the story of the white-haired man.

I’m particular to a reader, and this one doesn’t disappoint. Do you see a woman lost in a book contemplating its vast world? Or, do you see a woman lost in the vast world burying herself in a book? Maybe she’s just caught by a noisy man on a phone disrupting her reading. Christina Ramos’s “Chapter one” lives far past its title.

The feeling of friendship is almost tangible here. I can see the years of fishing trials and tribulations collecting in the arms slung over the shoulders of these men. Artist Allan O’Marra says, “This is a painting of one of my brothers (that’s him on the left) and two friends of his…” You can assemble story after story about these men as you contemplate their bond in “Lawrence and Friends.”

A painting is a vantage point that you see a story through. The characters aren’t objective representations of people. They are cases of emotion and impact to unload. When you pick a piece of art, consider its character. Author George R.R. Martin wrote, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one.” If you can look at a piece of art every day and see a new story, a new connection, a new reason to love it, you’ve chosen the right painting for your home.

 

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