Pines and crevasses ( an I-pad image, from memory, of autumn colours on an escarpment in the Alps whilst travelling along the highway)

Here are two quotes that I believe are very relevant for artists today.

Paul Gauguin :
 ‘Don’t copy nature too closely – art is an abstraction as you dream amid nature, extrapolate art from it and concentrate on what you will create as a result’. 

How I interpret this is: don’t slavishly copy what one sees in front of one (nature/photograph) but interpret it expressing one’s self in one’s own language on the final image.

Another Gauguin quote I found which confirms this is:-‘If you see a tree as blue then make it blue.!’

A bottle brush tree. (acrylic)

Matisse:
‘A picture isn’t a mirror which reflects what I lived through but a powerful and highly expressive object which is new to me as to anyone else.’

Matisse’s quote sends out a similar message to Gaugin’s.
He had an everlasting interest in colour and used it as a means of expression creating many art works that were highly individual. I’m a great fan of ‘The Fauves’.

A windblown tree. (watercolour)

In my own artwork, I try to be more original, bearing in mind the many quotes that artists of the past have made.

Julie Witt