A lot of people don't feel at home in art galleries. This is a terrible pity, since in galleries – like in book and music shops – many new ideas are presented.

Many new ways of doing things, of looking at our own environment plus the world at large. New ways of thinking about the world in which we live.

This creates new ideas for us to ponder, ideas to get excited about, to marvel at, to give us encouragement, to experiment with – to, in general, enrich our lives a little here and there.

Why is it so much easier to go browsing in a bookshop than in an art gallery? Is it easier to browse for an object than for an idea?

There are, however, other places where art can be experienced and enjoyed in a much more relaxed manner. Cafes for instance.

There are some cafes which have realised that by placing art on the wall it can be enjoyed over a coffee, during a meal or a quiet moment alone, without the pressure of “having to look at art”.

A wonderful idea. It thus becomes possible to enter a “gallery” and just have a refreshment, then look at and enjoy the art at leisure and without pressure and if suitably relaxed and/or interested get up and actually face it for closer scrutiny.

The skills of the artist, arrives as a result of work. Hard work. Concentrated work, Focused work. The time put in. A watercolorist, for example. Time of many periods of applying coloured water onto paper.

The time of learning the difference between colour on dry paper and colour on wet paper, different kinds and qualities of paper. Brushes, dry brushes, wet brushes.

The time put in to make friends with the materials, meaning to get to understand them so intimately that you know exactly what you can and cannot do with them.

When that is achieved, you practice the movements. Over and over again, not unlike a musician learning to play an instrument.

In this case the brush and the paper, not unlike the bow and the violin, are the instruments, while  the resulting painting is the music.

The music manifested in colour. This continued learning of movements result in the confidence to put down the colour in one beautiful movement.

The same clear beautiful movement of a ballet dancer.

Or the delivery of cup of coffee from a waiter with flair, a waiter who knows how to do that. It is toward this aspect that the craftsperson, who is also want to be an artist, thrives.

Generally, or in the main, there are no paintings of fish at cafes, the fish there are real and come on a plate.

However, there are landscapes, the outside brought in, portraits, still lives etc. however, going back to the watercolour paintings, some of them have that "made in one movement" quality.

The result is a transparency and liveliness of colour which is very beautiful.

So now you can have a coffee with generous helpings of art.

While we were in a cafe and talking about the art of watercolour painting, it struck me that I could look at the “art of service” in a similar way, since both are skill based and therefore have similarities.

When I once asked a master of  the waiting profession what good service meant I was told: “good service happens when you don't realise you are being served” the waiter always stays in the backgorund. All the rules of learning to paint apply.

To get it right the first time, to understand the economy of movement, to get the timing correct. to keep it spontaneous and clear, without lots of chatter and flutterings around the customer. That makes a waiter an artist and an artist a …

Petrus Spronk, art@petrusspronk.com