What is your favorite art quote?

“Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.” - Chuck Close

2 Likes

I was preparing to teach a Portrait Drawing class recently and came across these two quotes from
John Singer Sargent which I thought were wonderful:

"Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.“
and
"A portrait is a painting where something is wrong with the mouth.”

Wish I had had a chance to meet the man, I think I may have like him very much.

3 Likes

The first one is from Claude Monet:
"… not to paint the subject, but to paint what´s between me and the subject…"

The second one I do not know who said this, or where I read it, sorry, but I find it so liberating:
“A perfect (executed) painting may not be good (“alive”) and a good painting may not be perfect”.

1 Like

Are you sure it’s not the other way around, Rafael?..about the dot and the line? Just wondering. I really like that quote. Thanks for posting it.

1 Like

To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture.
Pablo Picasso

Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.
Pablo Picasso

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
Aristotle

You are right. My dyslexia is showing up.

Brilliant, I love both these quotes. Especially the first one. So true.

“Painting is stronger than me, it makes me do it’s bidding.” - Pablo Picasso

1 Like

I like this quote Bob, and how perfect that it should come from you. I definitely see this concept in your work!

Art is not a thing, it is a way.

2 Likes

“I have no special talents, I am just passionately curious”.
anonymous

"A fine suggestion, a sketch with great feeling, can be as expressive as the most finished product."
Eugene Delacroix

And I love this by Winston Churchill “Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts.”

3 Likes

Paint is Strong. Mark Lincoln

“Draw Antonio, draw Antonio, draw and don’t waste time”
“Disegna Antonio, disegna Antonio, disegna e non perder tempo”

Michelangelo

1 Like

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it’s a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, I’ll try again tomorrow."

There is more power in telling little than telling all. Silence is so accurate. –Rothko