Painter Quotes

The lover is drawn by the thing loved, as the sense is by that which it perceives.

People who mind don't matter. But people who matter don't mind.

The merit of painting lies in the exactness of reproduction. Painting is a science and all sciences are based on mathematics. No human inquiry can be a science unless it pursues its path through mathematical exposition and demonstration.

A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame. The teacher who has come to the end of his subject, who has no living traffic with his knowledge but merely repeats his lesson to his students, can only load their minds, he cannot quicken them.

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.

It is ordained that to the ambitious, who derive no satisfaction from the gifts of life and the beauty of the world, life shall be a cause of suffering, and they shall possess neither the profit nor the beauty of the world.

How often have I found that wanting to use blue, I didn't have it so I used a red instead of the blue.

When we rejoice in our fullness, then we can part with our fruits with joy.

A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold.

The question and the cry 'Oh, where?' melt into tears of a thousand streams and deluge the world with the flood of the assurance 'I am!'

I don't work from nature, I work like nature.

The painter or draftsman ought to be solitary, in order that the well-being of the body not sap the vigour of the mind.

Whatever the source of emotion that drives me to create, I want to give it a form which has some connection with the visible world, even if it is only to wage war on that world....I want my paintings to be able to defend themselves to resist the invader, just as though there were razor blades on all surfaces so no one could touch them without cutting his hands.

My shoe is off. My foot is cold. I have a bird I like to hold.

For those who know how to read, I have painted my autobiography

Fire destroys all sophistry, that is deceit; and maintains truth alone, that is gold.

Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.

Do not say, 'It is morning,' and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a newborn child that has no name.

A luminous body will appear more brilliant in proportion as it is surrounded by deeper shadow.

I am lucky to be what I am! Thank goodness I'm not just a clam, or a ham, or a dusty jar of sour gooseberry jam! I am what I am - that's a great thing to be!

He who in reasoning cites authority is making use of his memory rather than of his intellect.

Melody and harmony are like lines and colors in pictures. A simple linear picture may be completely beautiful; the introduction of color may make it vague and insignificant. Yet color may, by combination with lines, create great pictures, so long as it does not smother and destroy their value.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist while still achieving milestones and outcomes as required by certain funders and policy-makers.

For many years, at great cost, I traveled through many countries, saw the high mountains, the oceans. The only things I did not see were the sparkling dewdrops in the grass just outside my door.

I say that the power of vision extends through the visual rays to the surface of non-transparent bodies, while the power possessed by these bodies extends to the power of vision.

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

Children who are decked with prince's robes and who have jeweled chains round their necks lose all pleasure in play; their dress hampers them at every step. In fear that it may be frayed, or stained with dust, they keep themselves from the world and are afraid ever to move. Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life.

Fix your course on a star and you'll navigate any storm.

When we accept any discipline for ourselves, we try to avoid everything except that which is necessary for our purpose; it is this purposefulness, which belongs to the adult mind, that we force upon school children. We say, "Never keep your mind aler.

Time abides long enough for those who make use of it.

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

Whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes ours, wherever they might have their origin... Let me feel with unalloyed gladness that all the great glories of man are mine.

You cannot go against nature. She is stronger than the strongest of men. We can permit ourselves some liberties, but in details only.

Because when a guy does something stupid once, well, that’s because he’s guy. But if he does the same stupid thing twice, that’s usually to impress some girl.

I've heard there are troubles of more than one kind; some come from ahead, and some come from behind. But I've brought a big bat. I'm all ready, you see; now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!

When he has the power to see things detached from self-interest and from the insistent claims of the lust of the senses, then alone can he have the true vision of the beauty that is everywhere.

You make 'em, I amuse 'em.

Nothing is more apt to deceive us than our own judgment of our work. We derive more benefit from having our faults pointed out by our enemies than from hearing the opinions of friends.

Drawing is a kind of hypnotism: one looks in such a way at the model, that he comes and takes a seat on the paper.

Horton, the kangaroo has sent Vlad!' Vlad? I know two Vlads. One is a cute little bunny that brings me cookies. The other is bad Vlad. Which Vlad?' Which one do you think?' Bad Vlad?' Good call.

The motive power is the cause of all life.

The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.

Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand with a grip that kills it.

If you want to catch beasts you don't see every day, You have to go places quite out of the way, You have to go places no others can get to. You have to get cold and you have too get wet, too.

Fear arises sooner than anything else.

They are not men, they are not women, they are Americans.

There is no "next" after you are dead and gone from your own world.

You make 'em, I amuse 'em. [children]

The deeper the feeling, the greater the pain

To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing... When I find myself facing a blank page, that’s always going through my head. What I capture in spite of myself interests me more than my own ideas.

Here is a thing which the more it is needed the more it is rejected: and this is advice, which is unwillingly heeded by those who most need it, that is to say, by the ignorant.

Boasting is only a masked shame; it does not truly believe in itself.

A lamp can only light another lamp when it continues to burn in its own flame.

A good picture, any picture, has to be bristling with razor blades.

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

Perspective is to painting what the bridle is to the horse, the rudder to a ship.

Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.

If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself or even less in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.

The knowledge of the past times and of the places of the earth is both an ornament and nutriment to the human mind.