I am a believer and a conformist. Anyone can revolt; it is much more difficult to obey our inner promptings.
–Georges Rouault
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I’ve been a big fan of French painter/printmaker Georges Rouault (1871-1958) from the moment many years ago when I stumbled across Miserere, a book of of his etchings. It was raw and expressive work often dealing with religious themes and those inner promptings, as he calls them in the quote above. It was a work that was very influential on my early Exiles series.
His paintings also possess the same rawness and expression of his etchings, maybe even more so, and I find myself immediately drawn to the dark line work and deep colors within them, not to mention the pure emotional feeling of them.
Now, if only I can obey my own inner promptings…
Redtree Times 
Isn’t it interesting to see the word “conformist” used so positively? And what an unusual thought: that anyone can revolt. I wonder if he was influenced by St. Paul’s advice to the Romans, to “be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”? I have a feeling that, if Rouault was around today, he’d have little interest in the Kardashians or the opinions of the Twitterati.
Yeah, I can’t see him trolling internet sites. I wouldn’t doubt that Rouault was aware of and perhaps influenced by St. Paul’s advice as much of his work deals with religious themes. This quote does make you think about the concept of conformity, doesn’t it?
On Thu, Nov 5, 2015 at 8:03 AM, Redtree Times wrote:
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