He created it. Everything that he paints happens. Not because its already planned out and hes seeing the future... I think he created the future based on things that were happening. The future he has created was a result of the things going on around him. The changes in the time line were not changed for him, he painted all of the changes. This explains how the comics are still accurate.

Anyone who has that power (Arthur only) can create events. I dont think he knows hes creating them, I think he just believes hes predicting them. This would explain why no matter what Hiro does, the comics dont change even after the death of Isaac.

I could be wrong though

That's sort of the catch 22 of prophecy. Once word is out that someone sees the future, people start going to them to see "what do I do next"...as an instructor/guidebook/mapquest. Much of Isaac's work has been both a guidepost AND a prophecy.

I think that the writers have intertwined the prophetic with the character story lines rather nicely.

Or Isaac was being mind controlled to paint the future they wanted?

I mean, it is the whole matrix thing. If she hadn't said anything about the vase, would he have still knocked it over?

Isaac's power was painting the future. That in itself molded the future. The fact that Isaac would paint a cheerleader and Peter would see it MADE the future that Isaac painted. So, did it happen because he painted it? I don't think so. I think he was just a big player in some of the story lines.

there is still 1 painting of Isaac's that did not come true as painted.

The explosion in the city he painted on the floor of the loft never happened... yet.

You still think the S1 plotline that they stopped by Nathan taking Peter away b4 he exploded is still going to happen?

Not everthing he paited came true... The bomb and Claire's death.

Playing devil's advocate here:

You could make a case for those paintings coming true:
1. Claire's death - the bully cheerleader is the blonde killed in the painting, or at the beginning of this season Sylar slicing Claire's head open.
2. The bomb - we've seen the bomb going off in a future scenario that isn't prevented yet - at the beginning of this season after Ando zaps Hiro. From a distance, Tokyo looks a lot like New York.

What I find hilarious is that Linderman, HRG and others in season one ran around trying to gather Issac's expensive one-of-a-kind paintings with ambiguous meaning, when all they really had to do was go to a comic book store and spend a couple of bucks to read how their lives would unfold.