I have been reading “Chatting With Henri Matisse: The Lost 1941 Interview” - Henri Matisse with Pierre Courthion (edited by Serge Guilbaut, translated by Chris Miller); Getty Research Institute, LA, 2013. It was originally intended to be published while Matisse was alive, but difficulties arose and Matisse blocked the book. It is wonderful to look at his art and read his words. This quote by Matisse on page 38 particularly stood out in response to if it was easy to reproduce his colors: “Yes, because I only use pure colors. My blue comes out of a tube.”
Now why did this stand out for me? Well, I once had my paintings rejected by a gallery owner because he said “Your colors look like they came right out of the tube.” SERIOUSLY????? Ok, some of my colors I mix, but some are definitely right out of the tube. And I say, what was good enough for Matisse is good enough for me!
(Just in case it took you forever to wade through all the bibliographic information at the beginning of this post, well, I am a retired librarian and I wanted to protect myself against copyright infringement).
