The Baroque style spread throughout Europe throughout the 16th century, but its specific stylistic traits were different depending on the region that they influenced.  While most artists throughout Europe continued to use Christian subject matter in their paintings, the Dutch artists adopted the Baroque style but began using common, everyday subject matter due to the religious conversion of the Netherlands to Calvinism.
 At this time, Luther’s teachings had taken hold throughout Germany and Scandinavia, influencing many people to leave the Catholic Church and change their ideas about God, the Bible, and religion.  Though Luther’s teachings didn’t extend far beyond Germany, John Calvin adopted some of Luther’s doctrines with some differences.  Luther was against saints and relics but allowed religious paintings, so long as they were not an object of worship.  Calvin held that any artistic depiction of religious themes was sacrilegious, and it was Calvin’s doctrine that spread to the Netherlands.  These beliefs led to several clashes with the Spanish, who ruled the Netherlands at the time and promoted Catholicism.  Eventually, these religious clashes resulted in Dutch independence from Spanish rule.

Deriding capitalism and deploring its so-called obsession with money is a common habit among some people who claim they love art. The Chester Dale Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC is a fabulous collection of art available to all because of the successful efforts of an art-loving capitalist.

Who Was Chester Dale?

Chester Dale (1883-1962) started working on the stock market at the age of 15, and by the age of 21 he owned his own brokerage house. A financial genius who made his fortune in bond trading, he was able to continue purchasing major works of art all during the 1920s and throughout the Depression. During that time, he and his wife Maud acquired some of the most famous paintings in the world.

By Cindy Tabacchi

Watercolor is a medium that can be used to produce many styles of art.  Some of the properties that are unique to watercolor make it particularly suitable for abstract art.  Some colors are more transparent than others, some pigments stain the paper to become permanent, and others can be easily lifted from selected areas.  Painting wet-on-wet will produce a very different effect than painting wet-on-dry.  Good design is as important to abstract watercolor as it is to any other form of art and will greatly influence the appeal of the finished work.

Where some people see trash, others see art. And, in some art, some people will only see a pile of meaningless trash. So, what's the difference? Maybe it's just in the eye of the beholder or artist. Maybe it's simply a matter of opening our minds to new and unique ways of doing and seeing things.