On Creativity
The letters of a Post-impressionist
I really don't know how I paint.
Armed with a white panel
I take ip a position in front of the Nature
that interests me
Contemplate what lies before me
And say to myself
That white panel must be turned into something
Dissatisfied with my work i return home
Put my panel out of sight,
And after taking a little rest
Go back to my work
Almost with qualms to see what it looks like
But even then I am not satisfied
For glorious nature is still , Too vividly stamped on my mind
Nevertheless, I find in my work a certain reverberations
of that which fascinated me
I know that Nature told me something
That she spoke to me
And thay I took down her message in a shorthand
Perhaps my stenographic script contains words that are undecipherable
Be like there are faults and omissions in it too
Still i may possess something that the wood,
the beach or the figure said;
And this is never in a tame or conventional language
that did not spring from Nature herself!