I do not consider I understand fine art very well. I was told years ago that all figurative painting is about understanding and controlling light. In a similar way to which non-figurative painting is more about controlling colours. The whole field of design which I have been involved in through my books also seemed to me almost magical as I simply did not see a page as other people saw it until I started to think of writing less as text and more as painting.
Instead of trying to control the flow of text what I was actually seeing was a vivid way of managing white-space. In fact my typesetter told me she rarely even reads what she is typesetting as her focus is all about balance, which is why she gets infuriated when someone says ‘here’s another paragraphs nothing too much to add’, when of course it is a huge amount to add as it changes every successive page and may even force a font change, which changes everything.
I will never know what fine artists’ see but I do know I am blind to the way their brains work and because I am blind to it, I appreciate and trust their descriptions of world as authentic to them. And that level of trust, which is wholly intellectual, is important because it teaches me about things for which I have little talent.