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18 November 1944

Colors are very interesting to the layman as well as to the painter. For me, however, color does not mean very much. I used to paint with a lot of colors, partly because I was taught in the impressionist school, whose theory is to analyze colors within the small area. But later I found that unsatisfactory for the strong expression of feeling. I have been exercising with simpler colors. Although I use about twelve colors, I try to create one color against another and to create another color between those two. 

The placing of one color against another in the right value and relationship must come from feeling and experience. I also feel that white should be white, without very much other color in it. For instance, if I am painting a white towel I paint white all the way through first, and try to introduce cooler white and warmer white (that creates two colors right there) then light half-tones and darks within the white, so that this white towel is three tones and two colors. I treat other colors on other materials or objects the same way, so with five colors altogether in my painting there is much variety of tone and colors creating more colors between one another.

I don't paint this way to avoid complication in color, but because I really believe I can express more strongly and definitely through this medium.