Naturalism is often what people will call “realism”, meaning, of course, visual realism. The goal of naturalism is to visually communicate an honest, true-to-life representation of the world around us. In contrast, distortion purposely changes or exaggerates nature. Sometimes this is done to provoke an emotional response or to emphasize design elements within the composition. Below are examples of both, borrowed from the Walker Art Center’s painting collection.

Naturalism

Distortion