Words of Inspiration From Other Artists

Whenever I heard someone say they wanted to paint or draw like (insert any famous artist here) I assumed they meant physically in whatever style or technique the artist was known for; after all, that's what I meant when I first said it.

But after years of study and reading journals, autobiographies, and essays from artists, I've learned to shift the meaning behind that phrase. I now, very much, wish to paint like Andrew Wyeth, Henri Matisse, Egon Schiele, or any passionate artist in history; only now I mean that I want to share their mentality, their passion, their philosophy, and their madness towards their life and subjects. When I'm working on a sketch or painting, I don't have a physical image of Andrew Wyeth's "Lovers" or Egon Schiele's "Mother and Child" in my mind, I have their words and wisdom help guiding me towards how I should be feeling when I make something.

I've got a small library started with many books containing underlines and highlights of the philosophies I've found, and I want to share them with you in no particular order. They're words that live with me every day in and out of the studio. Most pertain to art; but a few others are about life.

Excerpts from Life With Picasso, by Francoise Gilot and Carlton Lake, New York Review of Books, 2019.

"Reality must be torn apart in every sense of the word. What people forget is that everything is unique. Nature never produces the same thing twice".

"I paint the way some people write their autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages of my journal, and as such they are valid. The future will choose the pages it prefers. It's not up to me to make the choice."

"When I have a feeling for something, my feeling for it doesn't change. That feeling is at the center of my conception of the painting and I try all possible expressions of it until I find one that satisfies me completely."

"We mustn't be afraid of inventing anything. Everything that is in us exists in nature. After all, we're part of nature. If it resembles, nature, that's fine. If it doesn't, what of it? When man wanted to invent something as useful as the human foot, he invented the wheel, which he used to transport himself and his burdens. The fact that he wheel doesn't have the slightest resemblance to the human foot is hardly a criticism of it."

Excerpts from The Art Spirit, by Robert Henri, Harper & Row Publishers, 1984.

"There is nothing in all the world more beautiful or significant of the laws of the universe than the nude human body. In fact it is not only among the artists but among all people that a greater appreciation and respect for the human body should develop. When we respect the nude we will no longer have any shame about it. "

"Many things that come into the world are not looked into. The individual says 'My crowd doesn't run that way.' I say, don't run with crowds."

"The great artist has not reproduced nature, but has expressed by his extract the most choice sensation it has made upon him...An artist must have imagination. An artists who does not use his imagination is just a mechanic. "

"Don't belong to any school. Don't tie up to any technique."

"The man who is forever acquiring technique with the idea that sometime he may have something to express, will never have the technique of the thing he wishes to express."

"I am not interested in art as a means of making a living, but I am interested in art as a means of living a life. It is the most important of all studies, and all studies are tributary to it."

"There are people who buy pictures because they were difficult to do, and are done. Such pictures are often only a record of pain and dull perseverance. Great works of art should look as though they were made in joy. Real joy is a tremendous activity, dull drudgery is nothing to it. The drudgery that kills is not half the work that joy is. "

"The demand we so often hear for finish is not for finish, but for the expected. Judging a Manet from the point of view of Bouguereau the Manet has not been finished. Judging a Bouguereau from the point of view of Manet, the Bouguereau has not been begun".

"Never change the course of a line until you have to. Never change the plane of a form until you have to. Never change the tone of a color or from one color to another until you have to. If you follow these injunctions intelligently you will practice that great economy which is necessary to expression in your medium."

"Seldom has the great art or great science of the world been paid for at the time of creation. It has been given, and in general has been cruelly received. You may cite honors and attentions and even money paid, but I would have you note that these were paid a long time after the creator had gone through his struggles."

"Self education, only, produces expression of self. Don't ask for criticism until you are sure you can't give it yourself. Then you will be in a fine state to receive it. You cannot impose education on anyone."

Excerpt from Matisse on Art, by Jack D. Flam, E.P Dutton, 1978.

"He notes that in painting and drawing, even in portraiture, conviction does not depend on 'the exact copying of natural forms, nor on the patient disassembling of exact details, but on the profound feeling of the artist before the objects which he has chose, on which his attention is focused and the spirit of which he has penetrated. '

Excerpts from Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life, by Richard Meryman, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 1996

"An artist speaks through his painting. And Christ, it makes me sick that people don't pay attention to what an artist paints. It drives me up a tree".

"...money means the opportunity to paint, 'the absolute freedom to do something in the future better than what I've done in the past.' He has zero interest in the possessions that money buys. 'I don't have to own something to love it' he says. "

"He believes that to be successful, a picture must at some point be what he calls, 'out of control.' "

"...I'd rather miss sometimes and hit strong other times than be an in-between person."

" 'It's better not to love too much. You've got to have a little hate in you.' "

" 'Great art, he believes, is bred in the bone, not the brain; artists must paint out of their own nature."

" 'I dream a lot,' Wyeth says. 'When I'm doing nothing is when I'm doing the most. Sometimes when there is great tension or lots taking place, I may get an idea or emotion, and it hits me strong. I let it build in my mind before I ever put it down on the panel. Sometimes I do my best work after the models have gone away, purely from memory.' "

" 'Have we lost the art of being alone? I think we have.' "

" Henriette (Wyeth) said 'The great things are created secretly. Like the impregnation in the womb. The start of things that grow in the black earth. The dreams in your head are secret and dark and magical and they ought never be blasted with light.' "

" 'I never wanted to copy the work of other people, but I wanted to find the truth in nature that they were expressing -- and then find my own truth.' "

" 'I don't stand there and placidly paint a picture,' Wyeth says. 'I can't stand those smooth things done in a studio with a hair dryer to dry your washes. My best watercolors are when there's scratches and spit and mud, gobs of paint and crap over them. I might as well be in an orgasm when I get going.' "

I've got more to share, but it's Sunday afternoon and I need to get some creating done. I'll share more next time!

This is the full text post from my Patreon, but only includes a few, low quality examples of my recent creations. To see the full gallery of works from this post, check out my Patreon!