What do you see?
Rain, steam and speed by Turner Early in my return to painting I was asked frequently why I did not do traditional watercolors but instead used vivid colors. Where they got the idea that watercolors were always pastel in palette I had no idea because I had been exposed in college to Turner among others. But my reply to potential clients was that I painted what I remembered seeing. I would go out and take photographs and come back and upload them to my camera and always be a bit disappointed. I remembered the rocks redder, the sun brighter, the sky more vividly blue. A recent eye exam has shown that I have rapidly developing cataracts. And that has raised the question of what it is I do see. Did Turner also have cataracts and see the world blurry like I do without my glasses? El Greco, it is believed had a condition that elongated what he saw. So maybe his paintings were what he did see and not some artistic distortion. The creation of the camera gave rise to impressionism beca...