As artists we look, we find, and then we paint what we have seen felt, and understood.  However, there are many ways of doing that and many results of that process.

When a child draws she draws what she knows.  She has seen things and dredges up a cat from the stored catness in her head. 

When we train as artists we learn to make translations from the seen to the drawn more immediate…often not going through the translation to understanding but merely transcribing the color and form into a brushstroke.  But sometimes it is better to take up the child’s method, not necessarily to paint childish things but to look to understand, the bring it inside and then to paint it out again as an understood thing that has formed into a solid thought of thingness.