John Constable

 It was on this day that the English landscape painter John Constable was born in 1776.
 
He was born in Suffolk England in an area now known as, "Constable Country".
 
When he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821 he said,

"I should paint my own places best" 
 
and 
 
 "Painting is but another word for feeling."

Gardeners will enjoy the constable's painting of the Trunk of an Elm Tree (1821) and his 1815 paintings of Golding Constable's Kitchen Garden and Flower Garden.
 
It was right about this time of year - Spring and mid-summer - that constable considered the most important times of the year for a landscape painter.
 
He didn't care for autumn. He felt the leafless trees were not inspiring to paint.
 
John Constable gives us a number of wonderful quotes. Here's a sampling

"Nature is the fountain's head, the source from whence all originality must spring."
 
"Landscape is my mistress - 'tis to her I look for fame."
 
"When I sit down to make a sketch from nature, the first thing I try to do is to forget that I have ever seen a picture."