How painting affects people

Throughout human history, visual art has served many purposes, from expressing belief to shaping perception. Painting offers a way to express emotional states: sometimes peacefully, sometimes through violent imagery. It can also be understood as a search for balance between bodily and inner experience.

Although painting and psychological difficulties may seem unrelated, art can offer a way to express feelings and explore one's experience. This is a possibility for self-expression, not a substitute for appropriate mental health care.

In the account attributed here to Irwin Edman, a painted line can evoke sensations of touch and movement. Some writers on aesthetics use “empathy”, or Einfühlung, to describe the viewer's felt involvement with an object. We may experience the movement of the lines as if following them bodily: an interrupted rhythm on the canvas interrupts the flow of perception, while a fluid line may suggest release from tension. We physically see colours with our eyes, yet can also imagine them with our eyes closed. We do not need light in front of us to picture blue in the mind; colours can appear vividly, separately or blended, in mental imagery.

The character of a line plays an important part in a painting's emotional effect. A straight line may suggest regularity or monotony, depending on scale and context, and can imply volume. Curving lines can create undulating surfaces that guide the eye. When these movements form a rhythm, they may produce a pleasing harmony. A curved line has its own flow; sudden changes of direction can instead suggest excitement, surprise, hesitation or instability.

Turan Vardar
Rekor Sanat – Art Teacher