Paint what you know, paint what you see

Two artists, a Chinese and a Japanese, are discussing what they paint.
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Murasaki: What do you like to paint?

Yang Kuei Fei: Things that remind me of where I grew up, the coast, the jungle, the people.

Murasaki: You don't go outside that?

Yang Kuei Fei: I paint what I know. I can do that. I feel I get inside my subject that way.

Murasaki: You don't travel and see things you want to paint?

Yang Kuei Fei: I travel. I have to attend my exhibitions.

Murasaki: I like to travel and paint what strikes me as fresh and new.

Yang Kuei Fei: You never feel you have misinterpreted, or mistaken the subject?

Murasaki: Well, yes. I have done that. I once painted a combine harvester in a midwestern wheatfield. Someone told me I'd painted it backwards. Combine harvesters have big cutters on the front and I'd put them on the back.

Yang Kuei Fei: You see?

Murasaki: But not knowing too much detail helps me see the essential lines, the basic colors, and from there it's easy to step into impressionism.
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Looking at paintings

Paulo has drawn a picture of Madam Bovary but she is not impressed.

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Madam Bovary: This is terrible. It’s not me.

Paulo: It’s how I see you.

Madam Bovary: What a load of rubbish.

Paulo: It may take a little getting used to.

Madam Bovary: I will not. I know what I like. And this is not what I like.

...

How much is a painting worth?

Eleanor wants to buy the Romeo and Juliet painting. How much do you think I should charge for it?
You want to sell it?
I don’t want to but she keeps asking. Twice this week.
How many copies do you have?
Only one.
Then don’t sell it until you have painted another version of it. Then keep the one you like most and sell the second-best one. Leonardo never sold the Mona Lisa, carried it around with him til he died. Who knows, the second Mona Lisa may yet be languishing in some Euro-attic.
Mmm. OK. But still I don’t know what to charge.
How much time did you spend on it?
Wash, second wash, last detail, check, oh six, eight hours over three or four days.
OK, well look. A plumber spends eight hours on a job. At fifty dollars an hour that equals four hundred dollars. Plus materials. Oh, and tax. Suggest four hundred, but give it to a friend for three-fifty.
But an artist is not the same as a plumber.
True. But both are artisans. Difference is that when you need a plumber you need one. When your pipes are not leaking you may have discretionary funds for art, but when you have a water crisis you are likely to put art purchases on hold.