How Paintings Influence Your Life

Have you ever cried while watching a really sad movie? Ever been mad after seeing the news? Paintings, subconsciously or not, affect us in many different ways.

It’s a known fact that everything we see, hear, smell and taste stimulates us, making us react to it in a certain way intentionally or otherwise. As in any stimulant, a piece of artwork may invoke a gamut of feelings and emotions starting from a smile all the way to downright indignation!

Here are a few more ways of how paintings may affect us at different levels.

Life Inspiring Art, Art Inspiring Life…

We’ve always heard the saying Art imitating life and life imitating art. Although always labeled as a cliché, in reality it really is not because some of the most influential artworks ever produced were based on an artist’s personal experiences. On a more personal level, can anything be more beautiful than that portrait of you in oil?

By the same token, a painting may drive us to become whatever is being depicted in the artwork – may it be courage, strength, victory or beauty. How many women have looked at the Mona Lisa and want to have the same mysterious smile? How many of us have looked at a great landscape and wish we were there?

Paintings as our personal self-portrait

We’ve seen artists do their self-portraits like Rembrandt, Frida Kahlo and Vincent van Gogh. Oftentimes, we as spectators relate to an artwork as if it was our own self-portrait. We may see a painting as a reflection of who we are now or who we want to be – a symbol of our dreams and aspirations or perhaps even our failures.

In some cases, a painting may give us that feeling of accomplishment not because of what is being depicted on the painting but because of the value of the artwork. You look at that highly collectible artwork on your wall, heave a sigh and say “I’ve made it!”.

Paintings and our mood

Selecting a painting is a very fragile process because it can transform the mood in any room. For instance, the vibrant colors of an abstract painting can lift our spirits, making us feel good and happy. A casual watercolor painting can make any person relax inside a stuffy business office; and in a café, an art print of huge cups of coffee on the wall seems to make the coffee beans in the air smell more vibrant!

This is the very reason why paintings make such good accents in virtually any room – there are so many choose from that there is bound to be a piece or two that is just exactly what you are looking for.

If you think about it, a person’s choice in paintings should not be dictated merely by its value nor the artist who created it. It is important that we also consider how it influences us – how we connect to an artwork – and use that as one of the many factors that will help us decide if a painting is worth buying or not.

So the next time you look at a painting, don’t just look at it – see through it. It might be showing you so much more than what the paint and canvas is conveying…