577 Quotes About Painting

What seems most significant to me about our movement [Impressionism] is that we have freed painting from the importance of the subject. I am at liberty to paint flowers and call them flowers, without their needing to tell a story.

I could either succumb to the nightmares I’ve raised or paint them.

Ingenting er mer krevende og angstfremkallende enn et nytt, fullstendig hvitt lerret. Hvordan du enn begynner, så føles det som om du ødelegger alt.

Oglądając prace jednego z moskiewskich fotografów, pomyślałem, że u nas liczni fotografowie zostali malarzami, a malarze fotografami. O ile to dobre dla fotografów, o tyle złe dla malarzy. Z wszystkich "-izmów" w sztuce najmniej godny jest fotografizm.

And on the days I couldn't breathe, I learned to paint air.

The painter knew that color was not something you controlled but something you set free. He believed that color knew its way home.

...he tried to make each painting capture that gently fuzzed qualit the camera gave everything, as if someone had patted away a top layer of clarity and left behind something kinder than the eye alone would see.

. . . there were masses of pictures she had not seen; however, Lily Briscoe reflected, perhaps it was better not to see pictures: they only made one hopelessly discontented with one’s own work.

Perhaps we painted on our own skin, with ochre and charcoal, long before we painted on stone.