Viewpoint

Four Artist Trading Cards - Summer
2.5 x 3.5, coloured pencil on Stonehenge
copyright Jeanette Jobson 2007

How an image appears to the viewer is all in the distance at which you view it.

In close range, especially in tiny images like these ATCs, colours and shapes are distinct strokes or values and the object somehow indistinct. But step back a few feet and everything pops into focus beautifully. This of course works with every drawing or painting. But some people have rituals about how they view a painting and I was trying to assess mine. I think I usually view from a distance, then try to get as close as possible, perhaps to absorb just how the artist as created the image. I want his or her technical secrets!

"What do you do when you look at a painting? I admit, I'd not consciously thought about it until I read Jonathan Jones' latest article The Guardian on a Rembrandt exhibit.

The first thing anyone has to do when looking at a painting is decide where to stand. Personally, I will circle, go away, come back; stand as close as allowed, then far away, then leave the room and return. It's something we never talk about, as if it were an embarrassing or boring distraction from the serious matters of form and content, but it's an important decision."