“The techniques of Monet or Degas can be copied; their principles of design are not obscure, they can be learned. If you want them for yourself you can have them—for a price. And the price is dearer than you may think. Not only will you have to put in at least as much time as they did in developing the same skills, all your living days, but the real price you will have paid is that you will have succeeded in becoming them, and will have missed becoming you.
Better to raise the questions Monet did than to mimic his responses. What are his questions, the task he set himself? They are remarkably similar to the questions any artist, any creative person, any awake person asks. “What is that damn thing out there? What does an idea look like? How can I give form to a feeling? How does this whole mess fit together. How can I speak about the thing no long there? The thing not here yet? Why am I moved like this by mere daylight, by nightfall? Is there truth here, or merely beauty? Does this line have integrity, or is it guile? What have I made up, what have I observed? Of all the things I can do, what shall I do, what should I do? Will I ever get it right?” Peter London NO MORE SECONDHAND ART Shambahla 1989
Painting:
The Rose Walk, Giverny, 1920–22, Musée Marmottan Monet
(Thanks to my friend Katherine Douglas for posting this in our art teacher FB group. It is super inspirational and I think I might print it out and post it in my classroom next year.)
TAB Studio with Mrs. B 