I came across the picture on the left the other day, and I remember well the conversation I was having with my brother, Texas artist, Lynn Burton. It was all about color, the different hues of nature. I recall vividly what he was saying when he so passionately raised his hands in the air.

He said, “Just look at the colors in those trees. The leaves aren’t green, and the trunks are not brown. My gracious!…can’t you see it? There’s reds and grays and ever spectrum of yellows and sienna and umber. It’s all there. You just got to look for it to see it. It will amaze you how many people can’t see what I’m talking about. Sadly, many of them are artists…or so called.”

I knew exactly what he was talking about. I call it the third eye…or, the artist’s eye. That something that an artist must possess to discern with difficulty the tiny sparkles of different hues that exist in nature as light touches an object.

We were sitting on the back deck of my son-in-law’s (John Frederick) East Texas lake house when we were having the conversation. John is the son of artist, James Frederick (which I have posted many blogs and written about extensively).

Lynn had flown over from Lubbock to visit me while I was in Texas. It was supposed to have been a fishing weekend, but the fish weren’t biting, so it turned into an ongoing art lesson. I don’t know if I said much that weekend but I learned a lot, what with visiting James Frederick and admiring his many great drawings and paintings and brother Lynn discussing art. An artist couldn’t ask for more.