Thoughts on Edmund Burke and Sublime

In the last year I have become so very interested in philosophy, and the great philosophers of the past. I would really like it to be a big part of my art and life. I find it so interesting and satisfying. I truly believe that philosophy and art go hand in hand. I am aware, however, that my own journey and knowledge in these things is limited and only just beginning. A great philosopher, Edmund Burke who wrote and partially began the idea of sublime and beauty, caused me to pause and think about why I do art.

"We might expect that the artists themselves would have been our surest guides; but the artists have been too much occupied in the practice: the philosophers have done little; and what they have done, was mostly with a view to their own schemes and systems; and as for those called critics, they have generally sought the rule of the arts in the wrong place; they sought it among poems, pictures, engravings, statues, and buildings. But art can never give the rules that make an art. This is, I believe, the reason why artists in general, and poets, principally, have been confined in so narrow a circle: they have been rather imitators of one another than of nature; and this with so faithful an uniformity, and to so remote an antiquity, that it is hard to say who gave the first model. Critics follow them, and therefore can do little as guides. I can judge but poorly of anything, whilst I measure it by no other standard than itself. The true standard of the arts is in every man's power; and an easy observation of the most common, sometimes of the meanest things in nature, will give the truest lights, where the greatest sagacity and industry, that slights such observation, must leave us in the dark, or, what is worse, amuse and mislead us by false lights." - Edmund Burke, PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF OUR IDEAS OF THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL

 I agree with what he has proposed. I love learning from nature and creation, it confuses me when I think some people will judge my work and say it isn't good enough because of the techniques I have used. On the other hand I have to constantly be aware of my own thoughts towards other people's works. I cannot judge their works to be good enough or not. I guess I appreciate the thought and depth behind works in general. Good thought out concepts is what I think makes good art. Art is here to help us grow and learn. If we draw or paint for no reason, with no feeling, or thought... then I think there is something missing. 
Definitely a can of worms, or rabbit hole...

On the other hand, here are some artists who, I think, create some feelings of awe and wonder in their works, and concepts. 

Guido van der Werv and his Nummer acht project. 

Rembrandt and his missing work Christ in the Storm