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“Curiously enough, we think we truly appreciate long before we do.  We find later we did not even see the things truly, because we had not yet arrived at the station that made true appreciation and consequent “vision” possible.  As a result, we are forced to a gradual change of mind about things that we once thought “wonderful.”  Because growth is so gradual, we are correct in suspecting the virtues of anything that comes to us “overnight.”  If divine truths could be handed down from the old to the young, we would have arrived at the omniscient perfection eons ago.”  ---John R. Carlson, Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

A few weeks ago, a friend and  landscape painter, Scott Boyle (www.scottboyleart.com), loaned me a copy of Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting.  I  see why Scott was excited about this book.  Carlson's insights have made me see that I have not seen things clearly. I am growing to appreciate things about the landscape that had previously escaped me.  But Carlson is also a philosopher of sorts. Not only does he make me see more clearly, but he  also  makes me think more deeply about all of life. His book has been a healthy dose of reality check.