"One eye sees, the other feels"

I haven't written for a while and it's time I blogged a bit about the Paul Klee quotations that I mentioned two posts ago.

The first remarkable statement, which is almost like a revelation, is about the connection between the painter and colour. This is what Klee said after his travels in Tunisia and Egypt:

"Colour possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Colour and I are one. I am a painter."

The next one is about the importance of every single day. At the end of each day you have to look back and honestly judge whether you've accomplished what you planned for that day or you have fallen short of it.

"A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller."

What about your day? How has it been? Has it made you larger or smaller?
My favourite Paul Klee quotation is about perception:

"One eye sees, the other feels."

To me this means that perception does not only happen in an objective and rational way. Your emotions always interfere with the way you perceive the world. It is important to know this when you have a really strong feeling at the sight of something. Is it really there, or am I adding my emotions on top of what I see? Is the mystery really there or do I want it to be there?

                                                         Black Night

Art that makes things visible - Paul Klee

Paul Klee is my favourite painter. The colours of his paintings take me to the world of dreams, so each time I see one of his paintings I perform a reality test just in case:) His compositions are very thoroughly planned and worked out yet they transfer a deep feeling of freedom that I seldom find in any other form of fine art.

Look at "Fire in the Evening". How can an orange square surrounded by coloured lines make me feel so high?

Klee was also greatly inspired by his travel to Tunisia, where he experienced a special quality of light that he really liked. The picture "Southern (Tunisian) Garden" is from that period.

And this is where lucid dreaming hits in. When I look at "Fish Magic" I feel as if I was floating in a dream. Girl, fish, flowers, clock and all the others woven into some surreal but very lucid and vivid fabric.

All the pictures are from here and here. Next time, I will post about Paul Klee's quotations that I like almost as much as his paintings. In the meantime you can watch this youtube video with the artist's most famous pictures. The images are quite good quality so I suggest going full-screen on this one.