I continually look to the great master painters of the past for inspiration and guidance. Some of my favorite landscape painters are George Inness, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Charles-Francois Daubigny and Henri Rousseau.
One biographer said of Corot's depiction of nature is that what the master sought to render was "not so much Nature herself as the love he bore her". That is incredibly beautiful and romantic. I will work the rest of my life to render my intense affection, connection and gratitude for Nature.
I love Inness' credo which was "The true purpose of the painter is simply to reproduce in other minds the impression which a scene has made upon him. A work of art is not to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken emotion. Its real greatness consists in the quality and the force of this emotion".
I believe the great difficulty of the artist is making a painting look very real without losing the initial emotional response to his subject. The artists that I feel I have the greatest connection with have this in common.
