Cast yourself back to the young inquisitive college sophomore (or equivalent) you, sitting around with your friends after a few and asking the most fundamental question of our relationship to life. “What is reality?”
“Is there and ultimate pure and true reality, or is it what we call real subject to interpretation as filtered through our senses and prejudices?
The answer is a clear and resounding, Yes!
Now apply this to the problem of painting the world. One may be compelled to look for the ultimate reality of things but we we immediately run up against the above question. I submit that while there are many parts of true and unquestionable realities (buses, trees, love, puppies, etc.) there is also negotiable reality (effects of light, observation over time, our mood, clouds).
As realist painters this is a great opportunity, and can be argued the only opportunity for us to express ourselves. We must grasp the ephemeral and fleeting as a compelling fact of reality and do our best to bring it into art. In painting this is often called. Capturing a moment. Happy Hunting!