Artists look at the same world we do.

Artists don’t see the same world that we see.

We see the forest.

An artist sees the trees.

No.

The artist sees a portrait of nature that just happens to reside somewhere within the trees.

It’s all about light.

And dark.

Shadows.

And composition.

We look around us and see the world at large.

An artist breaks the world down into a series of scenes and places them in frames.

First in the eye.

Then in the lens.

Finally on the wall.

Annette Hanna was driving through New Jersey when she glanced out the window and saw the pond, then the bridge, outlined against trees.

Different colors.

Different textures.

The result, she says, was a lovely park in Denville, New Jersey, painted in pastel. Annette points out, “One day in summer in passing on a hazy morning, I saw it and had to paint it.”

The pond and the bridge and the trees would be there tomorrow.

The scene she saw would be gone.

Paint it now.

Or lose it.

Annette Hanna kept the moment alive forever.