a few words to Milton Avery on his death by Mark Rothko

".... Avery is first a great poet. His is the poetry of sheer loveliness, of sheer beauty. Thanks to him this kind of poetry has been able to survive in our time...."

"....I cannot tell you what it meant for us during those early years to be made welcome in those memorable studios on Broadway, 72nd street and Columbus Avenue. We were, there, both the subjects of his paintings and his idolatrous audience. The walls were always covered with an endless and changing array of poetry and light."

Obviously, I have selected these pictures for very personal reasons, they please me immensely. And, they have always had a large influence upon me. 

Avery was called the 'American Fauve' which I can certainly understand. 

For me they continually raise all the those mysterious questions concerning 'non-objection' and 'abstraction' whilst working from Nature and a motif.