21 Quotes by Elizabeth Peyton

A painting of a person can be descriptive, but for me it's about all the things that make up a picture - the feelings, the brushstrokes - more than describing somebody. People latch on to the personalities when they talk about my work and forget the other parts.

If art is any good, it has so much of a longer trajectory than one night. Contemporary art is separate from art openings. In the end, it depends on the strength of ideas in each piece.

Romanticism is not just about being in a fixed state of endless beauty, because you can't live like that or live on that, that's what I've learnt.

I think everybody can be beautiful. Anybody can have beauty. It's about how you look at the world, in a way, and how you treat yourself.

I think little things are more powerful because they're more honest, so people feel them more strongly.

I start listening to something, or I'm seeing somebody a lot or seeing their art. And then I just really want to make a picture of them.

I don't rise to the occasion unless I'm really moved.

I love the idea that someone I like would have a piece of mine in their house and have a relationship with it.

You really need faith in yourself to make art and to stand up for what you believe in.