The Undercurrent

“THERE ARE MANY CRAFTSMEN who paint pleasantly the surface appearances and are very clever at it. There are always a few who get at and feel the undercurrent, and these simply use the surface appearances selecting them and using them as tools to express the undercurrent, the real life.

If I cannot feel an undercurrent then I see only a series of things. They may be attractive and novel at first but soon grow tiresome. There is an undercurrent, the real life, beneath all appearances everywhere. I do not say that any master has fully comprehended it at any time, but the value of his work is in that he has sensed it and his work reports the measure of his experience.”

(Robert Henri, The Art Spirit)