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Whether you are a novice or an experienced artist, there is always something that can be learnt from the masters. Art itself is a very diverse subject and a matter of personal taste. So many different things can be classified as art.

As an example take art from the Orient. The Japanese and Chinese use brushes both for their lettering and painting. Often you find their work is just in black or white. Brushes from the east are usually made of hair and they go to a definite point, ideal for the fine work they go on to produce.

These brushes go on to encapsulate interesting fine works, fragile silk paintings and yes, of course, calligraphy. Obviously this takes me back to the fantastic paintings of Zen. He often used an ink over a wash. These seem to be painted with a delicacy.

The long fine brushes they use seem to create lovely flowing works of art which appear so true to form and give out the freedom of movement. Naturally this works well on silk. The trees and waters are expressed well like this.

Expressionism as we know it is not necessarily a true representational art form. Really I would go as far as to say, it is how you express your inner feelings on a given subject emotionally.

Let us use the famous painter Van Gogh as an example. To the normal person much of his work appears to be totally distorted. The weird shapes and forms created turned into natural genius!

How often we all admire the works of Monet and his wonderful landscapes amongst other pictures. Interestingly enough they appear as a series of dots and dashes which then form the picture. This is called Impressionism.

Probably this art style dates back to the 19th Century. The light plays an important part of the completed picture and this style works well with landscapes.

If we go back to the 17th Century however and the Dutch Masters, around this time, I think Still Life was born. This style was very easy to understand as normal objects were portrayed. I cannot help think how far ahead some of these artists were in their ideas.

Although we might comprehend the subjects chosen, normal objects are not always easily achieved, such as bowls of fruit, tables and chairs as examples, as firstly you need an interesting background. What a rich talent these artists possessed.

Now to the regular night-time scenes found in gay Paris created by the likes of Toulouse-Lautrec. How he loved all this and brought the subjects all to life for us and into our homes as posters etc. showing the bawdy lifestyle of the local artists and burlesque in the dance halls.

Even Monet did some amazing humorous sketches often of his friends yet still created such fantastic luminous colourful scenes. They were always so lovely and bright.

However, there are so many well known artists. Take Renoir, Paul Klee, J.W. Turner. Pablo Picasso, these are just a few and there are many more up and coming artists we are yet to hear about.

One of my favourites happens to be Salvador Dali. His work appeared to know no bounds. He surely is one of the greatest painters ever known. Barcelona is fortunate to have so many examples for the general public to savour.

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