“… nature is strong and mysterious. It is in our interest to live in good relations with her. I am in constant contact with her. And no matter how small my work may be, I never withdraw from nature so as not to fantasize into the void and run the risk of ending up in nothingness in my flight from nature.

Painting demands, in whatever form one expresses oneself, that one never loses sight of the ultimate, strictest and most positive pictorial orders. But it is precisely these that are most likely to be lost to those who paint in front of nature. The struggle for probability, fidelity and expression often forgets to observe rules and regulations, the “system” of which Cézanne speaks. Because the art is not in the content, but in the interaction of color, tone and contrast.”
(Hans Purrmann, in: Die Pfälzer Kunst, 1954)