It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does happen, there is a connection. Color is an intrinsic element to all formal considerations, but it is also the most mysterious. It is the part that is the least capable of intellectual control. So it's something about which I know very little, except that I know that I can trust myself on it. Albers talks about that - there has to be a relationship.
People are uncomfortable with color.
It's not exactly a skill - it's more of a sensibility. Kahn explained in a 1998 lecture to the American Psychiatric Association that he does not find words like creativity and inspiration to be useful, and prefers to think in terms of artistic energy instead. Kahn and Mason agree that inspiration is an outdated concept. Well, for both of us, nothing is going to happen unless we're in front of the canvas. We were just always painting.