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See art in a fresh way.

But how does an artist translate his philosophy into his art?

In this series I will show you some of the ways artists convey philosophy.

One of the elements that is important for many painters is to simply paint what they see, in effect saying: "look."

From Wikipedia on philosophy of perception: "Our perception of the external world begins with the senses, which lead us to generate empirical concepts representing the world around us..."

17th Century Dutch painter van Huysum has painted this floral still life with a tremendous amount of detailed observation.

Much like a scientist, van Huysum was intensely focused on his perception of these flowers. Notice the differentiation of the flowers' colors, textures, sizes, shapes, and details.

For this particular painting's philosophy, it is safe to conclude that van Huysum believed that perception was an essential factor.

I hope you enjoyed this observation.

Michael Newberry
New York, November 2008