Art Quotes Vlaminck Colour loaded

 

The river Seine at Chatou by Vlaminck

In an effort to get more art into my blog, I have come up with the idea of these ‘art quotes’.  I don’t know where they will lead (probably all over the place) hopefully the quotes will lead into other aspects – not just art.   As with any new category you have to have a starting point – so here’s my first quote:-

I  had no wish for a change of scene. All these places that I knew so well, the Seine with its strings of barges, the tugs with their plumes of smoke, the taverns in the suburbs, the colors of the atmosphere, the sky with its great clouds and its patches of sun, these were what I wanted to paint.  Maurice de Vlaminck

Vlaminck

Maurice de Vlaminck was a giant of man, an athelete, anarchist and novelist.  He was a self taught artist unlike Mattisse and Andre Derain.  These French artists along with  Rouault, Friesz, Marquet, van Dongen, Braque, and Dufy made up the art movement known as Fauvism (or the Wild beasts). 

It was  short lived movement (1900 -1910: the important years where it flourished were between 1905 1907/8).  With its expressionist style and use of  bold exuberant colour, the Fauvist’s work was recognised  for it’s painterly brushstrokes and strong colours rather than for pure representational qualities.

Restaurant at Marly-le-Roi by Maurice de Vlaminck

“I was poor but I knew that life is beautiful. And I had no other ambition than to discover with the help of new means those deep inner ties that linked me to the very soil.”  Maurice de Vlanminck

I like the way Vlaminck has linked  his inner being to the soil – using art as an vehicle for expression.  Like Van Gogh, who first influenced him, he painted familiar landscapes and people in unfamiliar ways.

Vlaminck was a vibrant character with a mind of his own.   He would use paint agressively straight from the tube and onto the canvas. 

He was larger than life, raced cars, played violins and  wished that Van Gogh had been his father!

Le Jardinier 1904 Vlaminck

I heightened all tones. I transposed into an orchestration of pure colors all the feelings of which I was conscious. I was a barbarian, tender and full of violence. I translated by instinct, without any method, not merely an artistic truth but above all a human one. I crushed and botched the ultramarines and vermilions though they were very expensive and I had to buy them on credit.  Maurice Vlaminck

Maurice Vlaminck – Picking Up Deadwood (1906)

I can imagine Vlaminck squeezing the paint tubes through his fingers, ‘crushing and botching them’ regardless of the expense. He is caught up in the moment and excited by his experiment – the pure colour stimulating his senses. 

It is a wonderful feeling to be inspired by sheer colour and one that I can identify, having gone through different colour preferences myself (I’m in a turquise/aqua marine phase at the moment).  It is said that colours have healing properties in them, and that the  colour that you are attracted to is the colour you need to heal you. 

Colour is all through our lives, from the nursery to the funeral.  Colour is linked both with the aura and even in the gemstones which we choose.

PS

Quotes website here

and here

Colour therapy