Art Appreciation via Psychological Analysis

Psychology graphic from the MantraCare website.

On a recent studio tour, the presenting artist, Nancy Reyner, shared a story about attending an art show with a friend. Nancy knew the artist in the exhibition, but her friend didn't. As they walked through the rooms, they talked about the art and the artists was astonished to hear her friend accurately describe the artist in the show. When Nancy asked how her friend was able to know so much about the person despite never having met them, her friend said, "I have a theory about what art says about the artist." Intrigued, Nancy asked for more information.

The friend's theory was a psychological analysis of the painting, and was beautifully simple:

The background of a painting reflects the artist's inner self, while the foreground reflects the public or outer face of the artist.

Nancy then went back and looked at her own artwork and found that theory to be true.

Here's an example:

"History of Apples", by Nancy Reyner, 46" x 36", acrylic and graphite on canvas

At the time of this paining, Nancy was moving away from realism and still life to abstraction. In her personal life she was starting a meditation practice, and as a result was becoming more intrigued by inner space. So in the painting you can see a lot of variety of color, shape, and value in the background while in the foreground the still life table and the vase with a flower are flat and moving off the canvas. She realized that she was literally pushing still life objects out of her art to make room for more exploration of inner space.

The next stop on the studio tour was with Alexandra Eldridge and we had a lot of fun applying that psychological analysis to her paintings. Here is an example of recent work by Alexandra:

"The Tree of Life" by Alexandra Eldridge, 36" x 36", mixed media

Dear reader, what do you see in the background? To me it appears etherial and perhaps provides a glimpse into another realm. Whereas the foreground is solid and real. As if the artist was able to keep one foot on the ground and the other foot in the non-physical world.

After listening to Alexandra talk for a while, that analysis seemed accurate. She is fascinated by the non-physical world and has lived most of her life in flow, where things, "just happen." Most of her work incorporates fantastical images and her imagination is apparent in every work. Recently she collaborated to create paintings to be used in a tarot card deck and an oracle card deck, which took years to complete. Each card is a glimpse into her imagination which I found to be delightful. Here is an example of two paintings used for the tarot deck:

Two paintings by Alexandra Eldridge used in her Radiant Tarot card deck.

So the next time you are looking at a painting try this psychological approach and see what you can discern about the artist. Even if you never meet them and have no idea if your observations are correct, it is a lot of fun and opens another layer to art appreciation.