“Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film. Your bright eyes, your easy smile is your museum.” (Ansel Adams)

this from a restaurant in Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy

“lascia che i tuoi sensi si prendano cura di te”

let your senses take care of you

Ristorante degli Archi  Montepulciano (the best pasta I have ever eaten in my life, by the way)

Here is Matisse toward the end of his life:

“What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject-matter, an art which might be for every mental worker, be he businessman or writer, like an appeasing influence, like a mental soother, something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue.”

This is a far cry from the demands of current politically conscious art forms which force us to look at our world more critically.  Are we then to say of Matisse that he is less serious?  I do not believe so.  Balance and serenity are not easy to achieve or conceive. Today’s world needs more balance, needs it desperately.

This is from Georgia O’Keeffe from the Exhibition Catalogue “An American Place” 1939

“A flower is relatively small.  Everyone has many associations with a flower – the idea of flowers. You put out your hand to touch the flower – lean forward to smell it – maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking – or give it to someone to please them.  Still – in a way – nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.  If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small.

So I said to myself – I’ll paint what I see – what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it…

Well…when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower – and I don’t.”

 

So I say paint what you see.  Paint what you feel.’Paint your truth and offer it to the world.