Up	Colour Wheel

Vladimir Makovsky - The Artist and the Apprentice

Many people might think that Art is something that flows from the soul of the Artist onto the canvas, unfettered by tedious mathematics, arcane rules or the laws of physics. The romantic idea is that the Artist transcend all such petty earthbound constraints by the sheer power of his creative energy and his divine inspiration. Taken to its logical conclusion this idea suggests that a person of great talent can produce a great work even if he has never seen a paint brush or canvas before. If you think such things are possible then perhaps you should go and inspect works by people with no experience and no training. Who knows, perhaps you might even like their work? Personally I prefer works created by the Artisan, whose talent has been honed by years of experience and expert training. In short: someone who knows what they are doing.

There is a great deal of technique involved in the production of lovely visual masterpieces and great painters of bygone times spent a long apprenticeship in the service of an acknowledged master painstakingly aquiring that knowledge. I certainly don't claim to have a comprehensive mastery of all aspects of the subject but I have had occasion and inspiration to study the subject of colour and it is there that I feel I can make a contribution to the theory of Visual Arts.