john f. carlson

“No Explanation, Nor Apology”

Anyone can learn to paint and to analyze physical truths as facts, but few have the power of self-analysis.  The artist must first be a dreamer, and then a sane analyzer of those dreams.  Again, “There can be no expression without previous impression.” Learn to discern the exact boundary between synthetic re-creation, suggestion, and mere [...]

pLog Pith VI

It is this deep sincerity, this deep appreciation of the significance of things that makes one picture great among a thousand lesser ones, and causes us to feel, when we behold it, that we have thought and felt that way all our lives. – John F. Carlson, from Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting, circa 1929.