Art Out-of-Doors 



with a middle distance of woodland, and no 

 background at all except the luminous sky. 



Of course some people are born with a 

 deep and true love for Nature, but even in 

 them I think this love does not show itself 

 very early in life. In the majority of cases 

 it seems to have been gradually developed 

 rather than spontaneously felt. And, while 

 no one not born with a poet's soul can ever 

 learn to feel Nature's charms as a Corot or a 

 Wordsworth did, anyone can learn to see 

 themx pretty clearly unless his mind is hope- 

 lessly sluggish, desperately prosaic. 



How can such knovv^ledge be acquired ? 

 One way, as I have said in speaking of trees, 

 is to study fine landscape-pictures. Anoth- 

 er is the landscape-painter's own way. The 

 practice of painting, even in the most un- 

 trained, amateurish fashion, may be an ex- 

 cellent help toward the development of a 

 love for Nature. If an intelligent young girl 

 would spend an hour a day, during a single 

 summer, faithfully trying to set down in paint 

 what she sees in Nature — now a flower or a 

 tree, now a bit of sunset-sky, a corner of 



320 



