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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