How Do Painters Influence Each Other?

Since Our Last Meeting

In my last blog post, I told you how I first encountered a work of art that truly moved my heart.
Most of the time, these encounters end as fleeting moments — you buy the painting, hang it on your wall, and that’s it.
But in my case, the relationship didn’t end there. I’ve stayed close to the artist who created that piece.

Looking back, I think I was drawn to her work because it expressed something inside me — an emotion I hadn’t been able to put into words — right there on the canvas.

Paintings, Poetry, and Taste

I couldn’t quite name what that “something” was at the time. But as I spent more time with her, I began to understand.
As I mentioned before, she’s someone who loves poetry.

I’m not exactly a die-hard poetry reader, but I think I’m a romantic at heart. When I read a poem, I feel emotions I’d forgotten suddenly rising to the surface. The last poetry collection I read was Emily Dickinson’s All Pretty but Me, the Kangaroo.

I’ve always loved lyrical poets, and I think that’s why her paintings pulled me in — they’re lyrical too. You can probably tell who someone’s a fan of by the little things they do: I found a poetry book I loved and immediately thought of giving it to her. Of course, she adored it.

When you find something good, you just want to share it with someone. That’s what being a fan is, isn’t it?

An Unexpected Gift in Return

A few days later, she surprised me with something in return.
Outside of class, we rarely text or message each other — she’s busy making her own work, and I’m buried in mine. So when she took the time to send me this message on KakaoTalk, I knew she’d been thinking of me.

It made me ridiculously happy. There’s something so precious about having someone who’s thinking about your growth, who’s wondering how you might move forward.

She wrote, “Your paintings might lean toward the linear, and toward black and white,” and sent me a photo of a drawing by the American artist Brice Marden.

Until then, I hadn’t been sure where my paintings were headed. Maybe she saw me drifting and wanted to give me a little nudge. 

Drawing and the Freedom of Line

Here’s the full story.
I may have mentioned this before — once a week, she stops by my studio and leaves me a few comments.
The last time we met was right after I’d finished the drawing.


My drawing

Later, she messaged me: “Your free lines remind me of Brice Marden’s work.” She even sent a photo for comparison.
Have a look at the pictures below and see if you think they really look alike."

Brice Marden  

The Power of an Objective Eye

When someone influences someone else, it’s not just about teaching — it’s about seeing you from the outside.

That drawing? I was about to toss it, thinking I’d ruined it. But she saw potential in it. And then she went and compared me to a great American artist. How could I not feel grateful?

I think she’s more interested in the process than in the final outcome — in the way we find our path. Brice Marden’s drawings, like mine, might just look “pretty good” if you only see the end result. But when you know the journey behind them, the work feels different.

How a Style Is Born

She once showed me how her own style developed — pairing a photo she’d taken on a sketching trip with a drawing she made from it.

Copyright Jang, hyunjoo All right reserved

Even in that drawing, before it became a painting, her unique line was already there. Like handwriting, everyone can draw from the same photo, but not everyone’s lines will carry the same feeling.

Copyright Jang, hyunjoo All right reserved

Lines From Nature

Brice Marden once said in an interview that he walks in nature to find inspiration. His drawings don’t recreate what’s in a photo — they let the lines of nature flow freely from memory.

That’s why her lines are beautiful too. She carries the feeling of the landscape in her mind, and when she draws, that feeling spills out like the moment it was first felt. That’s something you can’t capture by copying a photograph.

Shared Sensibilities

The more I think about it, the more I realize Brice Marden, my teacher, and I share something: lyricism, nature, black and white, and the freedom of line.

A Question From the Past

I’m reminded of my grad school days in New York. Back then, I didn’t know what direction I was headed in either. My professor would often ask me, “Who’s your favorite artist? What’s your taste?”

At the time, I didn’t understand the question. I thought art was supposed to be pure creation, and that taste had nothing to do with it. I believed great art sprang up from the ground, fully formed.

Art That Starts With Taste

Now I see it differently. A work of art isn’t separate from the artist — it’s part of them. Artists may wander, unsure of what to paint, but sometimes the starting point is as simple as taste.

Don’t dismiss the little things: I know the kind of paintings I’m drawn to. I know the artists who inspire me. I like landscapes with houses. I like trees.
Those things matter.

Finding What Feels Like Family

We say we “search for art,” but really, I think we’re looking for something that feels like family. Someone once said,
“Life is about finding your family.”

When you find something that resembles you, you realize — Oh, this is who I really am.
And sometimes, you need someone beside you who can say, “That’s not quite it,” even when you think it is.

How Painters Influence One Another

When we talk about artists influencing each other, we often think of the apprentice model — a famous artist teaching a student their style and techniques. Egon Schiele, for example, learned under Gustav Klimt. At first, he copied his teacher’s style, but later, he built his own distinct world.

When I told my teacher I wanted to learn her painting because I loved it so much, she said:
“It only takes a week to learn the technique. But real painting is born from endless repetition.”

In other words, it takes persistent effort and time to discover your own thing.
Even if you start with imitation, you have to identify the one element that moved you most — the thing you want to make your own.

Sometimes it takes years to figure out what that is. And the person who wakes it up in you might be your teacher, or Klimt, or Brice Marden.

That’s how painters move forward — one step at a time, finding the elements that feel like family.

So, who’s influencing you right now?

• Who’s your favorite artist, and why?
• Whose influence shows in your work?
• What’s your taste — abstract, landscape, portrait?