I've Always Refused Requests Even

Zaandam Has Enough To Paint For A Lifetime.

One Is Too Taken Up With All That One Sees And Hears In Paris, However Strong One Is, And What I Do Here [in Etretat] Will At Least Have The Merit Of Being Unlike Anyone Else, At Least I Believe So, Because It Will Simply Be The Expression Of What I, And Only I, Have Felt.

Take Clear Water With Grass Waving At The Bottom. It's Wonderful To Look At, But To Try To Paint It Is Enough To Make One Insane.

Getting Up At 4 In The Morning, I Slave Away All Day Until By The Evening I'm Exhausted, And I End By Forgetting All My Responsibilities, Thinking Only Of The Work I've Set Out To Do.

Paint What You Really See, Not What You Think You Ought To See; Not The Object Isolated As In A Test Tube, But The Object Enveloped In Sunlight And Atmosphere, With The Blue Dome Of Heaven Reflected In The Shadows.