The Passion of Painting

A collection of quotes that I love from painters of the past that I culled from a book called “Painters on Painting” by Eric Protter. Unfortunately, there were no women artists quoted in this book, but that doesn’t surprise me nor does it keep me from appreciating these brilliant insights.

“I pray every day that God make me a child, that is to say that He will let me see nature in the unpredjudiced way that a child sees it.” Corot

“I work on all parts of my painting at once, improving it very gently until I find that the effect is complete… like blowing a bubble.” Corot

“When you have trained yourself to see a tree truly, you know how to look at the human figure.” -Pisarro

“The classroom is good only when you are strong enough not to be influenced.”
-Pisarro

The painting’s aim is “to create a suggestive magic that contains both the object and the subject, the world outside the artist, and the artist himself.” -Courbet

“If a painting does not make a human contact, it is nothing.” Robert Motherwell

“Pictures are vehicles of passion, of all kinds and orders, not pretty luxuries like sports cars. In our society, the capacity to give and to receive passion is limited. For this reason, the act of painting is a deep human necessity, not the production of a handmade commodity.” Robert Motherwell

“To seek freedom through significant form and design rather than through the diversion of so-called free and accidental brush handling. In short, to dissolve into clean air all impediments that might interrupt the flow of pure enjoyment.” Andrew Wyeth

“Concision in art is both necessary and elegant… In a figure, look for the highlights and the deepest shadows; the rest will come naturally…” -Manet

“I put things down on canvas as simply as I can, as I see them.” -Manet

Image Credit: “Oysters” by Manet