post picasso

I made a new friend yesterday, his name is Pablo Picasso. You may know of him, he is a pretty famous artist. If not, shame on you. I went to the museum housing some 200 of his original works and walked out feeling like a new woman. After quickly finding the nearest (and most eccentric coffee shop) by the musuem I sat to digest my thoughts (aka write in my journal at 5000 mph) over a cup of coffee with ice cream in it (sounds wierd, but trust me it was wonderful).

It left quite an impression on me to have walked through the development of his work in Chronological order. As a twelve year-old he was nothing short of a genius, a child protige, and was able to capture his surroundings with astounding realism. I have to admit I felt jealous of his abilities, until I read that his father was an art teacher and quit his job to teach his son... makes me wonder whose dream was being fulfilled by the strokes of his brush?

The astounding thing to me was the way in which he painted what he felt. For a period of his life he used only intense blue shades (aptly refered to as the BLUE PERIOD) to illustrate the way in which he say and experienced life. I could sense his despair just by walking through.

Then my favourite part was the collection of paintings he did in his later years while living in the French Riviera. The paintings are entitled Windows as he says "paintings are like windows open to the world". The images were quite the contrast to his earlier work as they were brightly coloured, completely unrealisitc and seemed like children´s sketches. Perhaps this was his attempt to capture the vantage point of a child he missed out on many years earlier.

Anyways, I left the musuem feeling as though I need to paint more. Not to make masterpieces, but to create windows of my world. I don´t intend that my work will ever hang on a wall in a musuem, but if it does I will allude to the way Picasso inspired me that one day in Spain!