Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I will bring lots of studies back with me so I can work on some big things at home.
I didn't become an impressionist. As long as I can remember I always have been one.
Ninety per cent of the theory of Impressionist painting is in . . . Ruskin's Elements.
I am very depressed and deeply disgusted with painting. It is really a continual torture.
All I did was to look at what the universe showed me, to let my brush bear witness to it.
I've always refused requests even from friends to employ a technique I know nothing about.
It's enough to drive you crazy, trying to depict the weather, the atmosphere, the ambience.
If only the weather would improve, there'd be hope of some work, but every day brings rain.
My eyes were finally opened and I understood nature. I learned at the same time to love it.
It would be asking too much to want to sell only to connoisseurs - that way starvation lies.
Nature won't be summoned to order and won't be kept waiting. It must be caught, well caught.
The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute.
I insist upon 'doing it alone'... I have always worked better alone and from my own impressions.
For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at any moment.
Eventually, my eyes were opened, and I really understood nature. I learned to love at the same time.
Techniques vary, art stays the same; it is a transposition of nature at once forceful and sensitive.
I'm continuing to work hard, not without periods of discouragement, but my strength comes back again.
Lots of people will protest that it's quite unreal and that I'm out of my mind, but that's just too bad
It seems to me that when I see nature I see it ready-made, completely written - but then, try to do it!
I am following Nature without being able to grasp her, I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.
It is a tragedy that we live in a world where physical courage is so common, and moral courage is so rare.
For me, the subject is of secondary importance: I want to convey what is alive between me and the subject.
I have never had a studio, and I do not understand shutting oneself up in a room. To draw, yes; to paint, no.
I pass my time in the open air on the beach when it is really heavy weather or when the boats go out fishing.
It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.
I would advise young artists to paint as they can, as long as they can, without being afraid of painting badly.
The point is to know how to use the colours, the choice of which is, when all's said and done, a matter of habit.
One day I am satisfied, the next day I find it all bad; still I hope that some day I will find some of them good.
I waited for the idea to consolidate, for the grouping and composition of themes to settle themselves in my brain.
One day Boudin said to me, 'Learn to draw well and appreciate the sea, the light, the blue sky.' I took his advice.
Gardening was something I learned in my youth when I was unhappy. I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.
It is only too easy to catch people's attention by doing something worse than anyone else has dared to do it before.
I'm very happy, very delighted. I'm setting to like a fighting cockerel, for I'm surrounded here by all that I love.
What is it that's taken hold of me, for me to carry on like this in relentless pursuit of something beyond my powers?
I work at my garden all the time and with love. What I need most are flowers, always. My heart is forever in Giverny.
I'm never finished with my paintings; the further I get, the more I seek the impossible and the more powerless I feel.
I was definitely born under an evil star. I have just been thrown out of the inn where I was staying, naked as a worm.
I would love to do orange and lemon trees silhouetted against the blue sea, but I cannot find them the way I want them.
What could be said about me...a man to whom only his painting matters? And of course his garden and his flowers as well.
It is difficult to stop in time because one gets carried away. But I have that strength; it is the only strength I have.
By the single example of this painter devoted to his art with such independence, my destiny as a painter opened out to me.
People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's simply necessary to love.
I'm quite content: although what I'm doing is far from being as I should like, I am complemented often enough all the same.
No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition.
While adding the finishing touches to a painting might appear insignificant, it is much harder to do than one might suppose.
Critic asks: 'And what, sir, is the subject matter of that painting?' - 'The subject matter, my dear good fellow, is the light.
I've only myself to blame for it, my impotence most of all and my weakness. If I do any good work now it will be only by chance.
I let a good many mistakes show through when fixing my sensations. It will always be the same and this is what makes me despair.
Take clear water with grass waving at the bottom. It's wonderful to look at, but to try to paint it is enough to make one insane.
Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.