Art and Life: Taking time to see

Sunrise is a favorite time to see sky painting. One morning, as I arrived at Saxony Lutheran High School early to prepare for class, I rounded the hill, and there before me was the most glorious sunrise I had ever seen. The sky was filled with oranges, reds, yellows, purples and blues. The clouds undulated in layers and puffs and streaks of those colors. It filled me with such joy, I ran inside the school, grabbed the custodian — the only other person there that early — and dragged him outside, shouting, “You have to see this!!” I was a bit passionate about the gorgeous sky and just had to share that feeling. He probably just thought: crazy art teacher again.

In my classes, I often tell my students to “draw what you see, not what you know.” This mantra was tossed back to me by a young student, one who came to me at age five. I asked her to draw me an apple. What she drew was an outline of an apple shape colored solid red. It was what she knew from coloring books and other sources.

Then, I placed a real apple before her. Look closely and see, I said. See the white spot from the light glowing on the shiny curve. See the soft pink red gradually change to deep red and then to a purple red where the shadow is. See the sweet wonder that is an apple. This I teach: to really look at the world for what is there, not what we take for granted is there. See the colors, the tints, the tones, the textures, the beauty. We “know” what our world looks like, but do we really see it?

One of my favorite artists is Georgia O’Keeffe. She painted very large flowers like the light iris. This lovely painting of an iris shows the many varieties up close of the color in each petal. Colors from pale lilac to deep turquoise with splashes of bright yellow. What beauty there is to see in a flower. As Georgia O’Keeffe said, “In a way, nobody sees a flower really; it is so small, we haven’t the time — and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”

Often, I see people in Capaha Park taking time like the people in Georges Seurat’s painting “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” There, people wander in a lovely park on a beautiful day. You can almost feel the breeze, hear the sounds and smell the air. I wonder if the people at Capaha can feel these things, if they see the colors of the sparkling leaves on the trees, the fascinating reflections on the lake or the constantly-changing clouds in the sky. An artist’s gift is to share these visions so the viewer may relive such moments of beauty as a sunrise.

Brenda S. Seyer has found tranquility in creating art from a young age. An art teacher and member of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, she enjoys working in charcoal figures, plein air oils, realistic watercolors and experimental batiks.