Above is Megan a painting by Weimin Mo.  Below is the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.

                                                        

Compare the eyes, the "windows to the soul," in the two paintings.  I would recognize Megan if I saw her on the street.  I would not recognize Lisa del Giocondo.

It is often said that artists have a "sixth sense," that they can see what we cannot.  The Impressionists abstracted slightly away from the realism of the Renaissance.  That is apparent to us now but at the time it was not a slight change. It was a radical departure.  We can see now that we did begin, in the 19th century, to experience--see-- the world the way that Monet, et al showed us: The world had sped up as the Industrial Age began, it became a blur of light and shadow and outlines and shapes, and that's the way that the Impressionists painted it:

                                             Monet, St. Lazare

                                         Seurat, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grand-Jatte.

                                          Pissaro

                                                     Degas, The Absinthe Drinker.

Shunned in their own time, the Impressionists have now become the most popular artists in the world.

Weimin Mo paints in the style of the Impressionists but with spectacular verisimilitude. He has a sixth sense for his portrait models' souls.  It's all about the eyes: the models', and Mr. Mo's.

                                                    Weimin Mo, Elyssa.