A bi'a cultcher

I have continued to cogitate on the matter of how I "read" pictures. I mentioned the other day (see Left hand, right hand) that, to me, a picture should lead the viewer into the scene from the left to the right. Perhaps I should have made clear that I was referring principally to landscapes as portraits and still lives are subject to different ways of "reading". It occurred to me to check work by some of the world's acknowledged greats, so below are shown paintings by J M W Turner, Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet which I think illustrate my point.







I'm less sure about John Constable's Haywain, although even with this picture I tend to start towards the left - possibly the with dog - and then work my way into the river.



This next picture is another by Monet, but to me it's back to front and I tend to ignore the left side.



I bet you feel much better for knowing that.