What happens when we stop simply recognising what we see? Every morning, I sit in my garden with my coffee and watch the bees, birds, flowers, shadows and wind. At first, I see a garden. But when I remain there long enough, something changes. I begin to perceive relationships: between bee and flower, movement and stillness, light and shadow, parent and offspring, colour and space. Nothing in the garden has changed. My perception has. This is where observation begins. In this episode of Brushstrokes of Being, I explore the difference between recognition and observation, and why sustained observation is one of the foundations of what I call visual intelligence. Visual intelligence is not simply seeing more. It is the ability to perceive relationships, understand them, and eventually make deliberate choices with them. And this matters far beyond drawing and painting. We live in a culture of rapid recognition, categorisation and judgement. We are constantly encouraged to decide what something is, whether we like it, whether we agree with it, and which category it belongs to. The arts are not immune to this. We categorise artists as traditional or contemporary, realist or abstract, painter or conceptual artist. We can then move almost instantly from category to preference: I like it. I don’t like it. I’m drawn to it. But these are responses; not yet critical observations. So what happens when we slow down enough to ask different questions? What are the relationships within the work? How does composition function? How does the eye move? How do colour, value, rhythm, gesture, scale and space interact? Does a concept actually become embodied in the visual language of the work? And perhaps most importantly: what makes something good art? I also explore why observation and conceptual thinking are not opposing approaches. In my own series Exceptional Female Musicians, the conceptual proposition determines what I observe, what I select, what I emphasise and how I construct the relationship between the performer and the viewer. Concept does not eliminate the need for observation. It increases it. Because observation gives us something to transform. Visual intelligence allows us to understand what we are seeing. Concept allows us to decide what we want to communicate. And art emerges through the transformation. In September, I will be taking this thinking into my Art Academy with the launch of the first of the foundational four courses, Learn to See Like an Artist. Because learning to see is not simply preparation for becoming an artist. It is a way of encountering reality. Maybe tomorrow morning, sit somewhere quietly for a few minutes and see what you notice when you stop trying to name everything. Subscribe to Brushstrokes of Being so you don’t miss the Art Academy launch. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brushstrokesofbeing.substack.com
