​Among French painters, my favorite painter after Cézanne is Henri Rousseau. And perhaps some part of my artistic world is inspired by Rousseau, right after Cézanne.

​Through Rousseau, I was able to think about drawing what I cannot see. Rousseau lived his entire life in poverty. He ended his life in a charity hospital in Paris. Maybe that's why he had never been abroad in his life. But mysteriously, the jungle in his paintings is more elaborate and beautiful than the real jungle. He visited botanical gardens, observed plants and flowers, and translated them into his world of work. By giving wings to his imagination, his works become very mysterious, exotic, and dreamy. When you look at his work, you realize that art has no limits. That is why art has value as art.

Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) was born as the son of a poor tinsmith in a small city in northwestern France. And he did not receive formal art education due to his financial situation. If it were like now, he would have been able to learn various techniques such as perspective and composition through many channels such as YouTube, but at that time, such things were difficult. Rousseau studied on his own by visiting nearby art galleries and copying artists' works and postcards.

His various creative and pure attempts that were not based on the basics of painting actually enriched his world of work. Rousseau's painting style influenced later Cubism, and works recreated from his imagination later led to Surrealism. Looking at this fact, we can clearly see how great the influence he left behind. He simply painted to the best of his ability in the given environment, and it is surprising that this action had a great impact on the history of art.

Without even receiving a formal education, he made his debut at the late age of 49 and was ridiculed and ignored by the art world. But Rousseau never gave up his own path. He had to work as a customs officer to make a living, so he came out and painted every weekend. These types of painters are called ‘Sunday painters.’

​He continued to paint throughout his life, working as a Sunday painter. He regularly participated in what are now called artist open calls. However, the art world at the time ridiculed his work. If you look at the portrait below, you can imagine how much he would have been laughed at compared to the painting style of the time.​

​The person who recognized him, who had been the subject of ridicule from critics, was none other than Picasso.

Picasso once said, “I devoted my life to learning how to draw like a child.” For him, the simple and pure paintings of Henri Rousseau, unbound by any formality, were a great inspiration. It is said that Picasso collected Henri Rousseau's paintings with the money he earned from selling his own paintings. As he gained recognition from the artists around him, critics' evaluations began to change. The work "Dream", which was submitted to the Indépendant exhibition in 1910, received praise from critics, and Rousseau achieved the success he had longed for as an artist.

What I like more than anything, as much as his indomitable will, is the color green he presents in his works. Rousseau is a pioneer of so-called ‘landscape portraits’. As its name suggests, it is a style of drawing people with natural scenery in the background. In particular, he left many portraits painted with forests in the background, and perhaps that is why he used such a variety of green colors that one analysis said, “There are about 50 greens in one of Rousseau’s paintings.” His green color seems to give us a sense of stability.​

I recommend that you study the works of Henri Rousseau if you want to create your own art world and style. Then, you will be attracted to the clear message of his work.

​I find it fascinating that he was clumsy. Because he was clumsy, he was able to be himself. He painted with his own colors without any decoration or pretense. And his paintings became original works. This is the spirit that I am researching and drawing through Altamira cave paintings.

​When I visited the Rivoli Center, I was able to see Joseph Rivoli's paintings. It was a calm and warm pastel oil landscape painting, and it is a very familiar landscape that we often see when driving. However, this painting clearly shows how amazing it is to discover beauty in a landscape that can be seen in everyday life in a moment that makes one want to leave it forever. You get the illusion that you are walking down this path inside a painting. After seeing his paintings, I was motivated to capture the beauty of the area where I live.

​Joseph Reboli (September 25, 1945 – June 4, 2004) was an American painter based in Stony Brook, New York, known primarily for his oil paintings of local scenes and subjects in the Three Village area and the East End of Long Island. I became even more interested in him because, more than anything else, he was an artist who revealed the beauty of my region to the world. Joseph Reboli was born in Port Jefferson, New York, and began drawing his paintings at an early age. Reboli had his first solo exhibition at Gallery North in Setauket in 1971.

Through the 2000s, Reboli continued to hold solo exhibitions at Gallery North, the first gallery to exhibit his work. It inspired the Joseph Reboli Wet Paint Festival, an outdoor painting event held annually by the non-profit gallery.

In 1999, the White House Historical Association held an exhibition at the While House Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. titled Impressions of the White House: The President's House Through the Eyes of an Artist, which featured the work of 14 prominent artists, including Joseph Reboli. . ​On June 4, 2004, Joseph Reboli died of lung cancer at the age of 58 in Setauket, New York.

​The Reboli Art and History Center was organized to preserve, support and make available to the public the artistic works of Joseph Reboli.

Recently, I visited the exhibition of artist, Dae Sung Park held at the Wang Center at Stony Brook University. It is a great fortune to be able to see his paintings in person in the United States.

​Artist Park Dae Sung, born in 1945, is currently considered the most active ink-and-wash painting artist in Korea. Artist Park, who taught himself how to draw from the age of five, is respected for his ability to perfectly use the styles of legendary Chinese and Korean ink painting masters from hundreds of years ago. His paintings are original and full of spirit.

Korean landscapes have been expressed dynamically on screen using a bird's-eye view and multiple perspectives, as if a bird were looking down from the sky. Rocks, waterfalls, and pine trees expressed with bold brushstrokes show extraordinary power.

He had no formal art education. Also, in 1949, when he was four years old, his father, who practiced oriental medicine in Cheongdo, Gyeongsangbuk-do, was designated as a ‘reactionary landowner’, and his parents were killed by a sickle wielded by partisans. At this time, his left arm was also cut off below the elbow.

He was an orphan, had a disability, and had no art education, but this environment did not stop his overflowing passion. Painter Daeseong Park has been building his own artistic world for over 50 years and conveying its depth and philosophy to the world. Below is the most impressive message he gave during the interview.

​Personally, seeing an artist's painting in person is very different from seeing the image. It's the same as taking a picture of a beautiful landscape and looking at it later, the emotion becomes less impressive. Personally, when I looked at artist Park Dae-sung paintings up close, I was glad to feel his 50 years of worries, pain, patience, and professionalism. It was an exhibition that allowed us to see how he created his own world within the world and used that energy to heal the world.

​His philosophy of painting is a compelling and emotionally resonant experience for those who appreciate the art and culture of the East. The fusion of traditional Korean painting with modern interpretation can offer a unique and powerful perspective on the region's rich artistic traditions.

Experiencing his exhibitions that bridge the past and the present, combining the traditional with the contemporary, can be a captivating way to gain insights into a place's cultural and artistic heritage. These exhibitions often showcase the enduring relevance and creative evolution of artistic traditions exhibition.

For anyone interested in exploring the emotions and cultural depth of Korea, I would recommend his exhibition. Artistic expression has a way of transcending boundaries and connecting people to the beauty and stories of different cultures. 

While I was traveling once, I noticed a lot of locks hanging from the railings. On each lock were names, events, and writings that could be left as memories or records. These were mainly sold for business purposes in nearby hotels or stores. Sometimes it is improvised. So are these objects just simple locks? No one would think that this is a lock and that it was made for the purpose of locking something and protecting the things inside. Because of the words written on it, that is, the experiences.

​Every time I see a scene like this, I think of Robert Motherwell’s “Art is an experience, not an object.” The words come to mind. When you think of art, painting is not true art if you think of canvas, brushes, paints or flames, drawings, exhibitions, etc. This is a shape and a form. True art has experience built into it. That is why they say it is the soul of an artist and that the spirit of an artist is necessary. If we recognize that a painting is no longer a two-dimensional plane, but rather a door that opens another dimension or space, art and painting will become even closer and more meaningful. It took me a long time to realize this. 

Maira Kalman is an American artist, illustrator, writer, and designer known for her paintings and writings about the human condition. She is an author and illustrator of over 30 books for adults and children, and her work is exhibited in museums worldwide.

 Many of you have probably seen her stunning illustration on the cover of The New York Times magazine. In addition to the colorful and beautiful paintings, I like her way of life and the way she draws while keeping her own style.

​She has been running a drawing blog for a long time. She and she have published several books for adults and children. It's astonishing when you consider the amount of her illustrations in real life. Among her paintings, I really like the chair picture below. If anyone draws a picture by unplugging themselves and putting themselves down, it will look like the picture below.

She writes a political column for the US Democratic Party called ,'Pursuit of happiness'.

​Below are some of her personal favorites.