I first came across Cezanne's works while on a term abroad in France. It was during my jr year of high school and at a point in my life that I was making major decisions as to the direction of my life and my art. I decided to study in a college town Aix en Provence which just so happened to be the birthplace and primary home of Cezanne. I soon found out they had a small museum dedicated to his works and even had his house open for tours. I went out and visited both of these and was blown away at his work and just how ahead of his time he was. It was clear that his paintings paved the way for the art of the early 20^th century and cubism. He explored with depth perception and spatial relations, even flattening the image to the surface that it was on. He would use spheres, cubes, and cones as his primary tools of abstracting the natural forms in his work. His studies of the mountain in Aix really stood out to me. I realized that I had everything around me in this awesome area of the world to work with and I went out and bough a sketch book. Everyday I would work on a study either using colored pencils, collages or photographs to not only remember the place but to try and capture what was all around me. Cezannes greatest influence on me was to let go of perfection.