Zaandam has enough to paint for a lifetime.

It was at home I learned the little I know. Schools always appeared to me like a prison, and never could I make up my mind to stay there, not even for four hours a day, when the sunshine was inviting, the sea smooth, and when it was joy to run about the cliffs in the free air, or to paddle in the water.

The older I become the more I realize of that I have to work very hard to reproduce what I search: the instantaneous. The influence of the atmosphere on the things and the light scattered throughout.

I waited for the idea to consolidate, for the grouping and composition of themes to settle themselves in my brain.

I can only draw what I see.

It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.

For almost two months now I've been struggling away with no result.