Art is not what you see, but what you feel
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Why experience is more important than perfection
Many people think you have to understand art before you can enjoy it. That you need knowledge of style, technique, or art history. But the more I paint, the more I realize that art isn't a puzzle to be solved. Art isn't a language of the head, but of the heart.
Art is not what you see , but what you feel .
Color as emotional language
Before a shape becomes recognizable, something already happens. A color can create a sense of calm or create tension. A gentle movement in paint can feel like breathing. A rough texture can awaken something in you that you can't immediately put into words.
In my painting "Landing in Color," everything began with intuitive movement. Without a plan, without a final image. The colors appeared like emotions on the canvas—at first free and undirected, then searching for a form. Only later did the butterfly, a symbol of transformation, emerge. Not because I conceived it, but because the work demanded it. The meaning didn't come from my head. It emerged through feeling.
Creation as listening
For me, painting isn't something I "do," but something I attune myself to. In "In Her Stillness, Beauty Grows," I began with a quiet underlayer. Soft tones, subtle texture. No rush. No goal. As I added layer upon layer of oil paint, I noticed that the portrait didn't demand attention, but presence.
Not loud. Not flashy. But soft, dignified, and complete.
It was as if the painting taught me that beauty is not created through action, but through making space for what is already there.
What you feel is the work
When someone looks at my paintings, I hope they don't say, "I know exactly what you mean."
I hope they say, “It touches something inside me.”
And that feeling may be different for everyone.
In Where Beauty Unfolds, some see a moment of vulnerability.
Others feel inner strength.
That's not a contradiction. That's the essence of being human.
Because art isn't an explanation. Art is a mirror.
A world that longs to feel
We live in a time where so much revolves around performance, analysis, and understanding. Art invites us to simply not understand for a moment. To become silent. To enter our inner landscape.
The Quiet Guard , one of my earlier works, arose from that longing for inner peace. The bull stands still. Not in struggle, but in presence. A guardian. Not to protect from the world, but to guard the gentleness within.
That's what art can do:
Not telling you who to be, but reminding you of who you already are.
Art does not need to be explained to be meaningful.
It doesn't have to be perfect to get something moving.
It doesn't have to look like reality to feel true.
Perhaps that is the real power of art:
that it doesn't ask you to look, but to feel.
In my next work I will explore this theme further – a portrait in which silence is not emptiness, but a place of growth.
If you'd like to follow this process closely, you're welcome to follow along via my newsletter or Instagram @merelalphenaar.
🌿 Thank you for sharing this moment with me. Perhaps it touched something in you. And that's precisely where art begins.