EXTENSIVE FACTS TAKE TIME TO LOAD

Why does an artist paint? Why do we have this imperative urge to express something that is within ourselves in form and line and color? I hesitate to face a formidable phalanx of leading questions such as a statement, a confession of this kind engenders. Every man's work is an expression of himself. I consider my work as an expression or perhaps as expressing an emotion, as in contrast to a statement of fact or sentimentality. It is the result of any idea or thing interesting to me in any way at the time, whether that interest is kindled by patently ulterior motives, summer sunshine, a yen for red shirts or some high philosophy. It is the spirit of all time or this time, the something which is life, that makes a work of art. Every experience in one's life goes to influence it as a negative or positive factor. Finished painting, good materials, knowledge of theories and technique are part of the palette but do not essentially need to be used to produce a work of art. As to whether the work of an artist is peculiar to his city and his country, it is, as part and parcel of the artist himself. Expression, in the form of art, if it is genuinely expressive, will be peculiar to the artist whose work it is, though not merely as a deviation from other styles of painting, not needing to be justified in the light of any movement or as an operation to uplift the face of beauty. V. M. S. Hannell.