Henry Miller on Painting - Part 4

Being that Henry Miller is also highly skilled at the written word, I am taken by his clarity in describing the the process of creating art.

Here is a passage from a letter written for Henry's friend Emil Schnellock in the book, Paint As You Like And Die Happy.

"The greatest joy, and the greatest triumph, in art comes at the moment when, realizing to the fullest your grip over the medium, you deliberately sacrifice it in the hope of discovering a vital hidden truth within you. It comes like a reward for patience-this freedom of mastery which is born of the hardest discipline. Then,no matter what you do or say, you are absolutely right and nobody dare criticize you.

I sense this very often in looking at Picasso's work. The great freedom and spontaneity he reveals is born, one feels, because of the impact, the pressure, the support of the whole being which, for an endless period, has been subservient to the discipline of the spirit. The most careless gesture is as right, as true, as valid, as the most carefully planned strokes. This I know,and nobody could convince me to the contrary. Picasso here is only demonstrating a wisdom of life which the sage practices on another, higher level."

Thought provoking, isn't it?

Back to the Drawing Board

It has been about a week since blogging and painting. My new canvas, my house, has been consuming my creativity.

I am looking forward to setting up my studio, but must wait until the floor is done which I hope will be this week. I have been missing painting and tonight will create a mandala with my traveling set of watercolor pencils.

In the meantime I have been reading a fun book: The Paintings of Henry Miller; Paint As You Like And Die Happy. It is a book that is out of print and first published in 1960. It is the same Henry Miller the famous writer.

Painting, for Henry, was more than an enthusiasm. It was a passion, yet he was curiously self-effacing about this side of his life. He painted for the sheer pleasure of picking up the brush "to see what happens." During his lean Big Sur years, he often spent more time painting than writing and watercolors became his economic salvation. He freely bartered them for food, clothing, and anything else he needed - a cord of wood, a tank of gas. The beauty of it was he assigned no denomination and exchanged them for anything from a song to a month's groceries. Value was a matter of the moment - and the heart. In order to create the book, the author had to find Henry's art.

The paintings in the book are organized by decades along with three essays. I will share more in the next blog. Stay tuned........


Henry Miller