9 Quotes by Susan Rothenberg

Most of my painting is done sitting in a chair with a book. I’d say it’s 80 per cent sitting and reading, 10 per cent eating and ten per cent painting.

I started to try to be a colorist, although secretly thinking of myself as somewhat of a black and whiteist.

The paintings are like prayers, relating to wishing for something beyond everyday life.

I can say that paintings are prayers, they have to do with anything that makes you wish for more that what everyday life provides.

The problem with Matisse is that I can’t ever figure out when he’s done a good painting or a bad painting because I don’t know how to analyse him. I just know that I like the way he put it on and I like his airs and forms.

I think artists almost always end up turning to what’s around them, what’s in their environment or outside their window.

Sometimes the painting starts to relate very directly to either sights seen or experiences felt, other times it just goes off on a tangent that you really can’t articulate.

You build up a head of steam. If you’re four days out of the studio, on the fifth day you really crash in there. You will kill anybody who disturbs you on that fifth day, when you desperately need it.

I think I care about beauty, but I don’t go for it. I hope it sometimes might be in there. I think, maybe, more in terms of a beautiful moment than trying to figure out what beauty is or what people respond to.