I Want To Paint The Air In

I Am Following Nature Without Being Able To Grasp Her, I Perhaps Owe Having Become A Painter To Flowers.

As For Myself, I Met With As Much Success As I Ever Could Have Wanted. In Other Words, I Was Enthusiastically Run-down By Every Critic Of The Period.

When You Go Out To Paint, Try To Forget What Objects You Have Before You - A Tree, House, A Field....merely Think, Here Is A Little Square Of Blue, Here An Oblong Of Pink, Here A Streak Of Yellow, And Paint It Just As It Looks To You, The Exact Color And Shape, Until It Gives Your Own Naive Impression Of The Scene Before You.

The Point Is To Know How To Use The Colours, The Choice Of Which Is, When All's Said And Done, A Matter Of Habit.

My Rejection At The Salon Brought An End To My Hesitation [to Settle In Paris] Since After This Failure I Can No Longer Claim To Cope... Alas, That Fatal Rejection Has Virtually Taken The Bread Out Of My Mouth.