Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Once I said to my mother: 'You would be happy if I just kept well-dressed and had good manners,' and she said: 'What else is there?'
I have to say, that's pretty typical for artists, kind of embarrassingly typical for artists that everything is all about selection.
Looking back upon my work today, I think the best I have done grew out of things deeply felt, the worst from a pride in mere talent.
No erotic work of art is filth if it is artistically significant; it is only turned into filth through the beholder if he is filthy.
Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.
No moon, sun, diamond, hands — fingertip, dot, ray, gauze, sea. pine green, pink glass, eye, mine, eraser, mud, mother, I am coming.
A work of art is finished, from the point of view of the artist, when feeling and perception have resulted in a spiritual synthesis.
And so artistic creation is the metamorphosis of the external physical aspects of a thing into a self-sustaining spiritual reality .
Raffael's drapery is the assistant of character, in Michelangelo it envelopes grandeur; it is in Reubens the ponderous robe of pomp.
I've had moments where I've met people who were complete, like, idiots, who could not understand visual culture to save their lives.
When the thing taken into union is perfectly adapted to that which receives it, the result is delight and pleasure and satisfaction.
The vine that has grown old on an old tree falls with the ruin of that tree, and through that bad companionship must perish with it.
Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind.
To make an artwork good enough to enter people's hearts is like what ancient Chinese called 'making stone into gold.' It is alchemy.
Why should I copy this owl, this sea urchin? Why should I try to imitate nature? I might just as well try to trace a perfect circle.
For the understanding of a picture a chair is needed. Why a chair? To prevent the legs, as they tire, from interfering with the mind
The emotion of beauty is always obscured by the appearance of the object. Therefore, the object must be eliminated from the picture.
Not even pencil or charcoal is needed. Drawing can also be done with a brush. But drawing is a must, if not, no painting can resist.
When I look back on everything I've done, it all somehow makes sense to me. But it doesn't make sense when you're actually doing it.
I share something in common with Norman Rockwell and, for that matter, with Walt Disney, in that I really like to make people happy.
I don't know if I can convey the postman as I feel him... Unfortunately he cannot pose, and a painting demands an intelligent model.
Chaos in nature is immediately challenging and forces a good artist to impose some type of order on his or her perception of a site.
When I left the Royal College, I decided I would only make paintings that I would want to look at myself, that felt close to my life.
Despite my exhaustion I have a devil of a time getting to sleep because of the rats above my bed and a pig who lives beneath my room.
I am metaphysical inasmuch as I am looking for a non-eloquent painting, immobile and of atmosphere, which feeds on static situations.
I don't like acrylic because you can't get the density of color. And with each coat of oil paint, the surface gets better and richer.
The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.
Art is to me the glorification of the human spirit, and as such it is the cultural documentation of the time in which it is produced.
There is in reality no such thing as modern art. Art is carried on up and down in immense cycles through centuries and civilizations.
Art will never come except from some small disregarded corner where an isolated and inspired man is studying the mysteries of nature.
Light - dews - breezes - bloom - and freshness; not one of which... has yet been perfected on the canvas of any painter in the world.
The landscape painter must walk in the fields with a humble mind. No arrogant man was ever permitted to see Nature in all her beauty.
Learn to nurture and trust your instincts as well as your conscious reasoning. Often, one's instincts will offer the better judgment.
Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.
The eye which turns from a white object in the light of the sun and goes into a less fully lighted place will see everything as dark.
The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things.
If your choice enters into it, then taste is involved - bad taste, good taste, uninteresting taste. Taste is the enemy of art, A-R-T.
There is something like an explosion in the meaning of certain words: they have a greater value than their meaning in the dictionary.
I don't want to escape via intellectual ruses – I want affirmations via passionate embraces & you can't have life unless you live it.
The reading of tourist prospectuses is one of the joys of the world -- it is like operetta in prose -- all so flowery and heavenlike.
Pulling yourself up again is the most important part of your life. Getting out of the bottom that you put everything into - yourself!
It may not always be obvious at first, but I think that everyone can make a valuable contribution if only they put their minds to it.
If you are trying to find something, it means you haven't got it. And if you find it simply by looking for it, that means it's false.
You cannot go against nature. She is stronger than the strongest of men. We can permit ourselves some liberties, but in details only.
There are chemists who spend their whole lives trying to find out what's in a lump of sugar. I want to know one thing. What is color?
He neither serves nor rules, he transmits. His position is humble and the beauty at the crown is not his own. He is merely a channel.
Physiological expenditure is a superficial way of self-expression. People who incline toward physical love accomplish nothing at all.
You can't teach it [jazz singing]. There's nobody who can teach you how to sing jazz. Either you know how to sing jazz, or you don't.
What is drawing? It is working oneself through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do.
Often whole days pass without my speaking to anyone, except to ask for diner or coffee. And it has been like that form the beginning.