The Impressionists learnt how to cut life up into glances and interjections.
Whistler, the master of ‘variations’ and ‘caprices’, explained that “On any given canvas the colours must, so to speak, be embroidered on; that is, the same colour must reappear at intervals, like a single thread in an embroidery.”
…I have been working long enough as a potter to know that being commissioned is an extremely delicate business. You are grateful, of course, but gratitude is different from feeling indebted. It is an interesting question for any artist: how long must you go on feeling grateful once someone has bought your work?
-Edmund de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes
