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1.

At the age of nine I painted, studying with Newton Weatherly of Geneva, N.Y.

I was unable to devote all my time to it until 1907-8 in France where I was free for eighteen months, working in the country.

Then back to America and discovered that at that time it was not possible to live by modern art alone. Made a living by farming and illustrating to support the paintings.

To understand painting one must live with it. The speed of to-day leaves very few with time to really live with anything, even ourselves. That too painting has to meet.

Then there was the search for a means of expression which did not depend upon representation. It should have order, size, intensity, spirit, nearer to the music of the eye.

If one could paint the part that goes to make the spirit of painting and leave out all that just makes tons and tons of art.

There was a long period of searching for a something in color which I then called "a condition of light". It applied to all objects in nature, flowers, trees, people, apples, cows. These all have their certain condition of light, which establishes them to the eye to each other, and to the understanding.

To understand that clearly go to nature, or to the Museum of Natural History and see the butter-flies. Each has it's own orange, blue, black; white, yellow, brown, green, and black, all carefully chosen to fit the character of the life going on in that individual entity.