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4.

paper here took far less time than with most of the others, but the time spent on the pencil work took considerably longer than with several of the others. 

I would say that qualities most admired in water color by the art critics of today are verve, brilliance, sparkle -- the dazzling, the dashed-off -- something that portrays the spontaneous reaction of a moment -- attributes which are obviously completely absent from this picture. Yet it remains one of a trio in this exhibition which most nearly achieve my intention in painting. It is felt by certain critics that if an artist is going to use water color, he should paint with what we call 'umph' or not at all in that medium. Their contention is that water color is not a thoughtful, not a detached medium. If an artist wishes to treat some subject in a reflective fashion, he should paint in oil or in tempera. This is an arbitrary credo with which I am not in agreement, so I go right on using water color to suit myself. If you want the other kind of work, breath-taking, exciting work, you must go to John Worf or Andrew Wyeth or Eliot O'Hara. I have nothing but admiration for the technical brilliance and stimulating aliveness of these painters, but I am a different sort of person and consequently I paint in a different way. 

With my painting is not the impulsive outburst of an intense nature upon beholding an image. With me it is not a spasmodic reaction like a sneeze. Instead it is something very carefully planned. I do not dash down a few pencil strokes and then at once begin to hurl the paint on the paper. I first plan the design with scrupulous selectivity, and only when I am convinced it is right, do I begin to paint. One reason I feel that everything a water color should advisedly be planned -- rather than left to happy accident -- is that nothing can be changed later. In a story or in a musical composition, superfluous material can be cut out or other material added; these medium permit any amount of correction and change. The same is true of oil painting, and therefore it is not as necessary that the original design be exactly right. A process of trial and error can