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All that is necessary to paint well is to be sincere.
–Maurice Denis
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In my opinion, sincerity is a huge part of how an artist’s work comes across, perhaps even more than the actual ability of the artist. Sincerity carries the emotion, the sensation, of the work of art. It is the part of art that moves and speaks to you.
I guess that is why I was drawn this morning to the simple quote above from painter Maurice Denis (1870-1943). I’ve been an admirer of his work for some time and for some reason have yet to mention him here. He was not one of the bigger names of art in his time but was important in that era that encompassed the transition from traditional representation to impressionism then on to modern art. He was part of Les Nabis which translates from both Hebrew and Arabic as The Prophets. It was a group of young French artists who followed in the artistic footsteps of Paul Gauguin.
As Denis wrote about Gauguin’s influence:
We learned from Gauguin that every work of art is a transposition, a caricature, a passionate equivalent of a sensation which has been experienced. He freed us from all restraints which the idea of copying naturally placed on our painter’s instincts. All artists are now free to express their own personality.
That basically deals with the same sort of sincerity mentioned at the top f the page.
Denis had a long career that moved through a number of different phases, all done well and with sincerity. There is much in his work that speaks to me, things that I wish to carry into my own work. Things I have already used, in some cases. I urge you to check out his wiki bio or some other reference sites to find out more.
A parting line from Denis: Don’t lose sight of the essential objectives of painting, which are expression, emotion, delectation; to understand the means, to paint decoratively, to exalt form and color.
Redtree Times 
I first became aware of Denis when I found and used that painting of the women seated in the woods in one of my blog entries. Now, I can’t remember why I chose it, or what I was writing about! Sometimes, exploring my own archives feels like an adventure: “I wrote that?”
Same thing here. I am often surprised by things from early blog entries (and sometimes even from those from not too long ago!) that have slipped my mind.