cezanneIt’s so fine and yet so terrible
to stand in front of a blank canvas.
Painting is damned difficult –
you always think you’ve got it,
but you haven’t.

I could paint for a hundred years,
a thousand years without stopping
and I would still feel I knew nothing.

I allow no one to touch me.
Here, on the river’s verge,
I could work for months
without changing my place,
simply leaning a little to the right or left.

Everything in nature is colored.
We live in a rainbow of chaos.
The truth is in nature, and I shall prove it.
The day is coming
when a single carrot, freshly observed,

will set off a revolution.
With an apple I will astonish Paris.

I allow no one to touch me.
I have sworn to die painting.
Tell me, do you think I’m going mad?

 

From the words of Paul Cezanne
Linda Frye Burnham 2011

cezanne

“Leaves after Cezanne,” woodland banner by Steven Durland

Paul Cezanne, "Corner of Quarry" (1902)

Paul Cezanne, “Corner of Quarry” (1902)