John Marin

John Marin seemed to appreciate the beauty in life.  He painted that beauty as he saw it.  He felt that paint was alive and needed to express itself.     He lost his mother shortly after he was born and when to live with his aunts.  He lived with them for over thirty years.  When he was finally allowed to study art he travelled to Europe and when he returned he never went back.  He married and had a son and summered in Maine and painted.  He was friends with Alfred Stieglitz who had a series of art galleries in New York.  The art in these galleries ended up defining Modern Art, artists who first showed their work in these galleries where artists like Auguste Rodin, Henri Matisse, and Georgia O’Keeffe.

In John Marin’s career as an artist he did some amazing etchings, watercolors and oils, but is probably know for is watercolor more than anything else.  When he wrote he used dashes and capital letters instead of traditional punctuation.  He drew the lines and shapes that the earth showed him.  He said “An artist has to construct shapes seen-to his own shapes the triangles and squares & circles which he creates he would never have created if he hadn’t seen triangles circles or squares in nature all his life…so that’s the source of his gettings-he being a natural object himself he can never get away from this (his seeings and hearings) and they register within himself and he uses them”.

He had an artist’s eye for movement and a respect for the earth .  “Go look at the bird’s flight-the man’s walk-the sea’s movement.  They have a way-to keep their motion-nature’s laws of motion have to be obeyed-and you have to follow along. The good picture embraces these laws-the best of the old did-that’s what gives them their life…”   

He loved to be in nature, “ Watch those animals put their feet down-they have respect for the Earth.” 

He loved classical music and often looked at his paintbrush as his instrument. “… and as to whether that Musical Instrument be brush, camera, spade, saw, or fiddle-matters not-provided that it give”

John Marin is a fascination person to study.  He didn’t care for intellectuals and didn’t like abstraction but often his paintings at first glance appeared abstract.  “John Marin by John Marin” is a collection of his writings and it gives a small look into what made John Marin tick. 

Now I will begin my work on seeing the movement and shapes in the world, so I can produce a John Marin inspired piece of art.