There is constant sun, good weather all the time, the ocean like a slab of slate - there is nothing less picturesque than this combination. - Berthe Morisot

..the glimpse of the dome of St. Paul's through the forest of yellow masts, the whole thing bathed in a golden haze.

I saw the passers-by on the avenue clearly and simply, in the way they are in Japanese prints [she saw some earlier, together with Mary Casatt in the 'Ecole des Beaux Arts', Paris]. I was thrilled, I knew definitely why I had been painting badly and why I would never paint that way again. I mean to say, I am fifty years old and once a year at least I have the same joy and the same hope.

Your phrase: 'I am working hard at growing old', is absolutely me. What if you were always to speak in my place..