Inspiration and Enjoyment

After returning from his last European trip, Hopper rented a studio in New York City. His exposure to many styles of art seemed to do little to help him find his own distinctive style. Reluctantly, he returned to illustration. Being a free-lancer, Hopper was forced to solicit for projects, and had to knock on the doors of magazine and agency offices to find business. His painting languished, “it’s hard for me to decide what I want to paint. I go for months without finding it sometimes. It comes slowly.” His fellow illustrator Walter Tittle described Hopper’s depressed emotional state in sharper terms, seeing his friend “suffering…from long periods of unconquerable inertia, sitting for days at a time before his easel in helpless unhappiness, unable to raise a hand to break the spell.”In 1912, Hopper traveled to Gloucester, Massachusetts, to seek some inspiration and did his first outdoor paintings in America. He painted Squam Light, the first of many lighthouse paintings to come. (Taken from Wikipeadia)