By James H. (Jim) Pence

I remember the first time I noticed how many different shades of green I could see in a grove of trees.

I don’t recall the location, although based on my age, it was probably somewhere in western Pennsylvania. And, strictly speaking, I don’t remember how old I was, although I was probably in my early teens.

I was in the back seat of my parents’ car and we were on our way to my grandparents’ home in Ellsworth, Pennsylvania, a trip that took us out of the city and through a lot of rolling hills and farmland. The trip took about forty-five minutes, and as we drove, I looked out the window and daydreamed. [This was in the late sixties, long before iPods, portable DVD players, and other forms of electronic entertainment. There wasn’t much else to do except daydream and sleep.]

I’d become interested in oil painting not long before and had fixed my eyes on a distant grove of trees. Bright sunlight was spilling across them, and as my gaze fell on the trees, I had one of those “Aha!” moments.

The trees weren’t a uniform shade of green. Instead, there was a spectacular variety of colors spread before me—all variants of green. I saw blue green [the wonderful blue spruce tree, which we don’t see down here in Texas]. There were shades of yellow green, and a deep, rich forest green. Some of the trees had warm, reddish brown tint mixed in among the green leaves.

And then there were the lights and darks. Some of the trees were in direct sunlight, making them bright and crisp. But there were places in that copse of trees where the sunlight couldn’t break through, giving them the appearance of almost pitch darkness—even in broad daylight.

What’s the point?

Simply that until I started painting and drawing, when I would look at a bunch of trees, I saw green. That’s it.

In a way, you could almost say that I didn’t see them at all.

Our world is so fast-paced that most of us tend to move through our day on cruise control. We see the world around us, but we don’t really notice the details. One of the greatest benefits of art education is that it teaches students to observe, to see their world in a whole new way.

Practical Exercise: Take some time to go outside today and observe the world around you. Look for colors that you’ve never seen before, details you’ve never spotted. Don’t come in until you’ve noticed one detail you’ve never really observed before.

COMING ON WEDNESDAY’S BLOG: A practical exercise in observation and drawing.