Our library of visual models guides us to visual conclusions. From the jittery arrays of photons we assemble an image in our cortex out of memory and experience.  We manufacture visual reality. Our memory stocks work to discern if a … Continued

Painting works upon our sense of discovery.  As my 2 year old granddaughter, Iris, water-colored she told me she was making a unicorn.  As Iris surveyed her work she discovered it was not a unicorn.  It was a “blue rocket … Continued

Prior to the 19th century artists using windy imagery looked to seascapes and sailing themes.  Early in the 19th century to landscape artists, John Constable and J.M.W. Turner looked to skies to generate a feeling of windy motion in their … Continued

In Patterns of Intention, Michael Baxandall wrote,  since the early Renaissance artists like Pieter Camper noticed that blue areas and objects appear farther away and,  red objects appear closer to us. He therefore assigned blue to the background and red … Continued

Physicist, Lisa Randall, describes the condition of the universe just after the big bang as isotropic. Everything was the same in all directions and all places.  Here is a metaphor for harmony for in painting; a surface with a uniformity … Continued

Trees are vessels for myth and metaphor in the history of painting across time and cultures.  From the biblical tree of knowledge and life to the Druidic Tannebaum later known as the Christmas tree, to the liberty tree, we find … Continued