extraordinary - the feeling you get when you walk into the national gallery
I'm one of those people that likes to try to pay real close attention to my feelings. And when I say that I'm talking about the feelings of my soul.
As a Mormon, I've always learned that special buildings have a certain feel to them. Temples and churches sometimes seem to have thick air. Like some kind of divine residue that is left over after a visit from angels. Because of this, I've been trying to pay attention to the impressions or feelings I get when I walk into the different museums. Most of them feel like a regular old buildings.
But the National Gallery was something different.
I walked in and I felt that special, soft, sweeping that can be felt when you walk into a sacred place. Paintings from centuries past. Brushstrokes hundreds of years old. A capturing of culture that no longer exists. These were real people captured in time.
There were also the paintings of Christ. Every detail captured with such devotion. Mary's face, the Lord's agony, the apostles' admiration. I couldn't help but think how close the painter had to pay attention to the way people looked with a certain emotion on their face.
As the paintings got newer and newer, the subjects began to change. People in the fields. Regular families in their regular activities. They then morphed into near-modern art. Impressionism. Painting on the feeling.
Made me think it'd be well worth my time to take up painting...
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