Artsy Quotes

[Karin Wells]

I was feeling guilty about wanting some days off when I ran into the following quote. When I work long hours, day after day, I tend to lose my perspective....

"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen."
- Leonardo Da Vinci

[Karin Wells]

"An artist is someone who is gifted in some way which enables him to do something more or less well which can only be done badly or not at all by someone who is not thus gifted. To speak of an art which requires no gift is a contradiction employed by people like yourself who have an artistic bent but no particular skill

[Karin Wells]

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at anytime. There is a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

-Martha Graham

[Karin Wells]

There's a quote I love by the great artist Vincent Van Gogh. When asked where his inspiration came from, he said simply, "I dream my paintings and then I paint my dreams."

[Jim Riley]

Someone sent a link to web pages relating to another thread and there I found these quotes from an interview with Nelson Shanks. I don't know if it is an "Artsy Quote" but it is provocative. http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2...n_shanks1.html

Here is part of the interview:

"We briefly discussed the realist protest that was held in New York outside The Whitney Museum of American Art last September. Nelson said that he had heard about it, but was unable to attend. Nonetheless, his outspoken sentiment about the subject of the Biennial is shared by many realists, "I think those people ought to be brought to their knees. They are taste makers who know very little about art. They just know what sort of dazzles their minimal mentalities. Most of it is pseudo-psychiatric. It's all a bunch of nonsense for the great part. But I have to tell you that I really do feel that part of the problem at the moment that's causing much exclusion of realism, is the lack of quality in realism. Let's face it, it's a fact. If there were people around who painted like Boldini and Sargent and Vermeer ... it would be seen and it would be spoken about and it would be exhibited. But the fact of the matter is that "much of the realism that is exhibited is of lesser quality. But when it's realism it has to be such high quality, you can't fake it. It's all hanging out there like the laundry."

[Karin Wells]

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be.

- Abraham Maslow

[Jim Riley]

Chase Quotes

I took these quotes a some time ago from a book on Chase and whose title I cannot remember nor find at the moment but wanted to share because they mean a lot to me. They are not directed toward portraiture but readily apply to our specialty. I quote him often.

Quotes from William Merritt Chase, Painter

" Do not try to paint the grandiose thing. Paint the commonplace so that it will be
distinguished."

" Great work comes from the heart. When only from the head, It is uninteresting."

" A delicate subject requires vigorous treatment to avoid the Bon-Bon type."

" Nothing is more difficult than flowers."

" I will venture the remark:

[Timothy C. Tyler]

This is my favorite Chase quote, " a painting should look as if it were blown on in one puff"

[Steven Sweeney]

"You Can Paint! No Art Knowledge Needed!"

-- from the cover of a book, presumably containing no "art knowledge", published in Australia.

[Steven Sweeney]

A few items lifted from Cay Lang's "Taking the Leap -- Building a Career as a Visual Artist":

Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results. (Tao te Ching)

Lay off the Muses -- it's a very tough dollar. (S.J. Perelman)

I think I'm beginning to learn something about it.
(Auguste Renoir, his last words about painting, at age seventy-eight.)

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