Shades of Gray

As an artist, I am aware that there are nine shades of gray.

Living in the Pacific Northwest, I believe that we get to see all nine shades on a regular basis during our dark winter days.

How many shades of gray do you see in this photo?


The photo was taken this morning with my phone camera while walking the Chehalis Western Trail with my dog, Ebony. I liked this view because there was a patch of blue sky a source of delight not only to the eyes, but to the soul.

Also notice the dark, ominous cloud.

Rorschach Test: What does it look like to you?


The Rorschach test (also known as the Rorschach inkblot test or simply the Inkblot test) is a psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex scientifically derived algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning.

It is similar to finding images in clouds or in splotches of paint with or without the psychological interpretations.

Interesting Art Book

The Artist's Eyes is a celebration of vision, of art and of the relationship between the two. Artists see the world in physical terms as we all do. However, they may be more perceptive than most in interpreting the complexity of how and what they see.

In this fascinating juxtaposition of science and art history, ophthalmologists Michael Marmor and James G. Ravin examine the role of vision and eye disease in art. They focus on the eye, where the process of vision originates and investigate how aspects of vision have inspired - and confounded - many of the world's most famous artists. Why do Georges Seurat's paintings appear to shimmer? How come the eyes in certain portraits seem to follow you around the room? Are the broad brushstrokes in Monet's Water Lilies due to cataracts? Could van Gogh's magnificent yellows be a result of drugs? How does eye disease affect the artistic process? Or does it at all?

The Artist's Eyes considers these questions and more. It is a testament to the triumph of artistic talent over human vulnerability and a tribute to the paintings that define eras, the artists who made them and the eyes through which all of us experience art.

About the Author

Michael F. Marmor is one of today's leading experts in retinal disease and retinal physiology and the author of more than 150 scientific papers. He is Professor and former Chair of Ophthalmology in the Stanford University School of Medicine and has taught "The Eye and Implications of Vision" in the Stanford undergraduate Program in Human Biology. James G. Ravin has studied the effects of illness on artists since he attended the University of Michigan Medical School. His investigations have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and have been featured on TV other national media. Dr. Ravin's special interest is in nineteenth-century European painting.

Sounds fascinating!

Henry Miller on Painting - Part 2

Henry Miller describes the "artist eye" in the book Paint As You Like And Die Happy.

"To paint is to love again. It's only when we look with eyes of love that we see as the painter sees. His is a love, moreover, which is free of possessiveness. What the painter sees he is duty bound to share. Usually he makes us see and feel what ordinarily we ignore or are immune to. His manner of approaching the world tells us, in effect, that nothing is vile or hideous, nothing is stale, flat, and unpalatable unless it be our own power of vision. To see is not merely to look. One must look-see. See into and around. Or, as John Marin once put it, 'Art must show what goes on in the world.'"

Henry shares about how he was transformed when he first began to view the world with the eyes of a painter. The most familiar things, objects which he had gazed at all his life, now became an unending source of wonder and affection.


Henry Miller