Getting Good Advice

When you know your craft well, when you've learned how to imitate nature thoroughly, the utmost goal for the painter is to envision the entire picture in one's head, having it "at a glance," as it were, so that he or she can begin to produce the image with warmth and as though the entire thing were unfolding at once and as one piece, as if all the parts had come together simultaneously. Then, I believe, the whole of the picture will be sensed as a unity. Herein lies the distinquishing feature of a master, and it's something that can only be acquired by constant reflection day and night, when once you have arrived at the point of creation. The great number of old, ancient works produced by a single person demonstrates that a certain moment truly arises when the artist of genius senses that he is being swept along by the force of his ideas -- each day -- as he does things that he never thought possible for him to do. Or her.

I feel like I'm that artist now. I make advances each day. Work has never come so readily and naturally to me before. Yet my paintings are by no means tossed off. Quite the contrary. I finish more than ever before, and do so more rapidly and effortlessly. My personality is such that I cannot imagine working in anything but a sincere way. To dash something off just for the money is impossible for me.

To hang tough despite all, never to work without the idea of pleasing yourself first -- and afterwards a few discerning friends -- this is what an artist MUST do. For art isn't a profession like other professions -- it's more like a calling, perhaps a divine calling. All the effort made in the spirit of courage has its fruit -- sooner or later. I'm going to have mine. After long days of quiet obscurity, a dawn will appear.