I ran across this today by Robert Henri in the "Art Spirit".
When the majority of students and the majority of so-called arrived artists go out into landscape, saying they intend to look for a "motive," they too ofter mean, unconsciously enough, that it is their intention to look until they have found an arrangement they have seen and liked in the galleries. A hundred times, perhaps, they have walked by their own subject, felt it, enjoyed it, but having no estimate of their own personal sensations, lacking faith in themselves, pass on until they come to this established taste of another. But such an artist is not having a good time. A snake without a skin might make a fair job of crawling into another snake's shedding, but I guess no snake would be fool enough to bother with it.
I was at the Canyon for a few weeks, just the dogs and I hiking and painting. I don't even remember the name of this particular overlook. It's an unusual one though, because I don't think I've ever seen it painted anywhere before. I had already started this painting, but just finished it today.
These wise ladies were sitting on their bench late one afternoon in one of the little villages in the Cinque Terre area of Italy. Many of the villagers would come down to the ocean as the sun set on the ocean. The kids would play and the adults would sit and chat. There was a very intimate and warm feeling to it all. 