Art quotes
enjoy this selection published in
Artist's Journal
The
The Artist's Journal is no longer being published.
For 28 years (1997-2025) The Artist’s Journal informed B.C.'s artists who
paint or draw where they could find exhibiting opportunities.
View the final publication here and enjoy the many other regular features.
Click on the headings to automatically scroll to them:
Art humour
Did you hear about the thief who ran out of gas as he drove away from the museum? He had no Monet to buy Degas to make the Van Gogh.
Source: https://www.boredpanda.com/art-jokes/
What is Salvador Dali’s favourite breakfast food? A bowl of surreal.
Source: https://www.boredpanda.com/art-jokes/
How well did Jackson Pollock do in art class? He passed with flying colours. Source: https://www.boredpanda.com/art-jokes/
If Edvard Munch painted on live video, what would he call it? The Stream. Source: https://www.boredpanda.com/art-jokes/
An Englishman, a Frenchman, and a Russian are in an art gallery, looking at a painting of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
“Look at how reserved and calm they are,” the Englishman says, “They would definitely be English.”
“They are naked and beautiful, they would have to be French,” the Frenchmen counters.
The Russian speaks up, “No clothes, no shelter, no bed, they have only an apple between them, and they’re told this is paradise. They are certainly Russian.”
Source: https://laffgaff.com/art-jokes-puns/
BC/Canadian artist quotes
To find your favourite local artists, use your computer's "find" option
or this alphabetical guide:
ABC DEF GHI JKL MNO PQR STUV WXYZ
Every day in my painting
practice I meet challenges that
move me forward on my way
to a new learning journey that
has no boundaries!
~ Diane Akey,
Salmon Arm artist.
As soon as a painting is
complete, there is a
disconnect; the work becomes
something new in itself.
~ Meredith Aitken,
Vancouver artist
My work is about the feeling
of having been there, rekindling
the experience and memory
of a particular place.
~ Enda Bardell,
Vancouver artist
(Teaching art) has been a gift
given back . . . watching
people find their own creative
strengths through art and
all it has to offer.
~ Sandra Bowen,
Tsawwassen-based artist.
Making art is the most relaxing,
joyous, therapeutic stimulating
way to spend your time, as you
unleash the part of your brain
that’s been itching to get at it.
~ Harley Brown
When one buys some of my
artwork, I hope it is because
they will wish to learn from it
and not because they think
it will match their drapes!
~ Christian Cardell Corbet
Through my artwork I try to
bring the outside in, to pay
tribute to the natural world and
remind us how rewarding
it can be to take the time
to reconnect with nature.
~ Kelly Corbett,
Nanoose Bay artist
Art is a necessity – an essential
part of our enlightenment
process. We cannot, as a
civilized society, regard
ourselves as being enlightened
without the arts.
~ Ken Danby
The art of painting will survive
and thrive because it is easy
to do and difficult to do well.
~ Robert Genn
I suppose what you're doing
as a painter is making a record
of yourtrip through life. I can't
think of any job that is quite as
satisfactory as doing a painting.
~ Robert Genn
A drawing a day keeps
the cobwebs away.
~ Robert Genn
The job of art is to turn
time into things.
~ Robert Genn
It's not so much
that I make art,
but that art makes me.
~ Lynna Goldhar Smith,
East Vancouver artist
Painting is meditation,
joy, and surprise.
~ Pamela Goossen,
Vancouver artist
A good painting makes me
feel uplifted out of the
physical body and into that
space where our passions
float free, a space where we
can all dream of better worlds.
~ Pamela Holl Hunt,
Port Alberni artist.
When I paint, it’s like I’m on a
mysterious journey to
an unknown destination.
I know I have arrived when
there are no more twists
and turns to consider.
The painting is done.
~ Therese Joseph,
North Vancouver artist.
Ultimately, I seek harmony
between ‘strength and fragility’
and ‘vibrancy and serenity.’
~ Therese Joseph,
North Vancouver artist
Nothing focuses my attention
more than painting.
~ Michael King,
Vancouver-based artist
I love to work in series.
This allows me to go deeper
into the theme of my paintings
and explore different angles
and approaches. Layering and
mixed media techniques
are my choice of
artistic expression.
~ Jeanne Krabbendam,
Vancouver artist
I challenge myself to elicit
questions and emotions through
the use of strong colour,
unusual shapes, and
diverse mark-making.
~ Marlene Lowden, BC artist
The world is full of endless
paintings, ready to be created.
~ Connie-Jean Moore,
BC artist
I want you to experience the
joy and excitement I feel
when I walk the trail, the
special thrill of sighting an
eagle in flight, the ferns
cascading down a hillside or
sun shining on the rocks in
a creek bed.
Moments in Nature.
~ Wendy Mould, Langley
Although I take liberties
with reality, Mother
Nature is always my
original inspiration.
~ Gwen Murphy,
BC landscape artist
(While fishing . . .)
I'd rather be painting.
At least with painting
you have something to show.
~ Toni Onley
No artist, if he has original
talent, can paint like another.
~ Joseph Plaskett
Each painting is a plunge
into the unknown.
~ Joseph Plaskett
Take the time to observe. It’s
amazing what you’ll learn.
~ Shari Pratt, Fort Langley
Joy is a well-made object,
equalled only by the joy
of making it.
~ Bill Reid
I was lucky to be raised
surrounded by our beautiful
West Coast scenery. The marine
and wildlife have always been
my inspiration, and the beach
is my happy place.
~ Caroline Scagel, BC artist
I love to draw . . .
I’m a lifelong artist. Art
influences everything I do,
including how I think and move
through the world.
~ Deborah Strong,
Mayne Island artist
Art is a way for me to
express my thoughts,
feelings, and ideas.
Coping with everyday life
as an artist challenged with
autism, I strive to make a
difference in the world.
~ J.A. Tan, Vancouver artist
Through my paintings,
drawings and mixed media
artworks, I am able to
not only communicate my
innermost thoughts and
feelings but also create
images that hopefully
inspire others.
~ J.A. Tan, Vancouver artist.
There is an emotional
dimension to visual art.
I feel that I’ve achieved some
success if a viewer reflects on
a piece and makes a
connection as well.
~ Nancy Whiteside,
New Westminster artist.
Worldwide artist quotes
To find your favourite artists, use your computer's "find" option
or use this alphabetical guide:
ABC DEF GHI JKL MNO PQR STUV WXYZ
Good art is not what it looks
like, but what it does to us.
~ Roy Adzak
I mean, art for art's sake is
ridiculous. Art is for the
sake of one's needs.
~ Carl Andre
The artist's job is not to
succumb to despair but to find
an antidote for the emptiness
of existence.
~ Woody Allen
Life doesn't imitate art;
it imitates bad television.
~ Woody Allen
Art is an international
language, understood by all.
~ Igor Babailov
Imagination is the
highest kite one can fly.
~ Lauren Bacall
If I sit and daydream, the
images rush by like a
succession of
colored slides.
~ Francis Bacon
Painting is the pattern of
one's own nervous system
being projected on canvas.
~ Francis Bacon
All painting is an accident.
But it's also not an accident,
because one must select
what part of the accident
one chooses to preserve.
~ Francis Bacon
I believe in deeply
ordered chaos.
~ Francis Bacon
Some artists leave remarkable
things which, a 100 years later,
don't work at all. I have left my
mark; my work is hung in
museums, but maybe one day
the Tate Gallery or the other
museums will banish me to the
cellar . . . you never know.
~ Francis Bacon
Painting gave meaning to my
life, which without it, it
would not have had.
~ Francis Bacon
Picasso is the reason why
I paint. He is the father figure,
who gave me the wish to paint.
~ Francis Bacon
The job of the artist is always
to deepen the mystery.
~ Francis Bacon
I don't think people are born
artists; I think it comes from a
mixture of your surroundings,
the people you meet, and luck.
~ Sir Francis Bacon
A wall is a very big weapon.
It's one of the nastiest things
you can hit someone with.
~ Banksy
Art should comfort the
disturbed and disturb
the comfortable.
~ Banksy
Speak softly, but carry
a big can of paint.
~ Banksy
Nobody ever listened to me
until they didn’t know
who I was.
~ Banksy
Art! Who comprehends her?
With whom can one consult
concerning this great goddess?
~ Ludwig van Beethoven
Art condenses the experience
we all have as human beings,
and, by forming it, makes it
significant. We all have an
in-built need for harmony and
the structures that create
harmony. Basically, art is
an affirmation of life.
~ Trevor Bell
I believe art is foremost for the
artist who creates it. You do it
for your soul, and if the rest of
the world gets something from it,
that's a bonus.
~ Marion Boddy-Evans
There is only one valuable
thing in art: the thing you
cannot explain.
~ Georges Braque
Art upsets,
science reassures.
~ Georges Braque
Once an object has been
incorporated in a picture
it accepts a new destiny.
~ Georges Braque
Art opens the closets, and
airs out the cellars and
attics. It brings healing.
~ Juila Cameron.
I am independent! I can
live alone and I love
to work
~ Mary Cassatt
There are two ways
for a painter: the broad
and easy one or the
narrow and hard one.
~ Mary Cassatt
Painting is damned difficult:
You always think you’ve
got it, but you haven’t.
~ Paul Cezanne
Art is a harmony parallel
with nature.
~ Paul Cezanne
Keep good company—that is,
go to the Louvre.
~ Paul Cézanne
If I create from the heart,
nearly everything works; if
from the head, almost nothing.
~ Marc Chagall
When I’m finishing a picture
I hold some God-made object
up to it – a rock, a flower, or a
tree branch – as a final test.
If the painting stands up beside
a thing man cannot make, the
painting is authentic. If there’s
a clash, it’s bad art.
~ Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
I work in whatever medium
likes me at the moment.
~ Marc Chagall
Modern art is what happens
when painters stop looking
at girls and persuade
themselves that they have
a better idea.
~ John Ciardi
The role of the artist is
to ask questions,
not answer them.
~ Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
I don’t think there’s an artist
of any value who doesn’t
doubt what they’re doing.
~ Francis Ford Coppola
Every morning when I wake
up, I experience an
exquisite joy —
the joy of being Salvador
Dalí — and I ask myself in
rapture: What wonderful things
is this Salvador Dalí going
to accomplish today?
~ Salvador Dalí
Any form of art is a form
of power; it has impact,
it can affect change – it
can not only move us,
it makes us move.
~ Ossie Davis
Everyone has talent at
twenty-five. The difficulty is
to have it at fifty.
~ Edgar Degas
Art is not what you see, but
what you make others see.
~ Edgar Degas
If you are not skillful enough
to sketch a man jumping
out of a window in the time it
takes him to fall from the fourth
story to the ground, you will never
be able to produce great works.
~ Eugène Delacroix
I don’t believe in art.
I believe in artists.
~ Marcel Duchamp
I would rather wait for a public
that will come fifty years – a
hundred years – after my death.
~ Marcel Duchamp (when asked
whether he cared what his
contemporaries thought of him).
The defining function
of the artist is to
cherish consciousness.
~ Max Eastman
Art is when a human tells
another human what it is
to be human.
~ Adrian Elmer
Every artist was first
an amateur.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Artists can colour the sky red
because they know it’s blue.
Those of us who aren’t artists
must colour things the way
they really are, or people
might think we’re stupid.
~ Jules Feiffer
Art is a calling.
Artists are not discovered
in school. Artists do not
just paint for themselves, and
they don’t simply paint for
an audience. They paint
because they have to.
There is something within
the artist that has to
be expressed. Every creation
reveals something more
about the universe
and about the artist.
~ Audrey Flack
Of all lies,
art is the least untrue.
~ Gustave Flaubert
In painting one must search
rather for suggestion than for
description, as is done in music.
~ Paul Gauguin
Art is either plagiarism
or revolution.
~ Paul Gauguin
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.
~ Francoise Gilot
When artists give form to
revelation, their art can
advance, deepen and
potentially transform the
consciousness of
their community.
~ Alex Grey
First we draw what we think
we see; then we draw what we
know; finally, we see
what we know.
~ Robert B. Hale
I have always said that
you do not see a thing
until you look away from it.
In other words, an object
or a fact in nature has not
become itself until it
has been projected in the
realm of the imagination.
~ Marsden Hartley
I can’t understand how
anyone is able to paint
without optimism. Despite
the general pessimistic
attitude in the world today,
I am nothing but an optimist.
~ Hans Hofmann
I don't paint dreams or
nightmares; I paint
my own reality.
~ Frida Kahlo
I am happy to be alive as long
as I can paint.
~ Frida Kahlo
I want the people looking at
my work to feel a sense of all
the possibilities of painting,
and, through that, in life as a
whole. When that happens,
I feel I’ve accomplished
something useful.
~ Wolf Kahn
Color provokes a psychic
vibration. Color hides a power
still unknown but real, which
acts on every part
of the human body.
~ Wassily Kandinsky
Generally speaking, color
directly influences the soul.
Color is the keyboard, the
eyes are the hammers, the
soul is the piano with many
strings. The artist is the
hand that plays, touching one
key or another purposively,
to cause vibrations in the soul.
~ Wassily Kandinsky
A drawing is simply a line
going for a walk.
~ Paul Klee
Art should be like a holiday;
something to give a man the
opportunity to see things
differently and to change
his point of view.
~ Paul Klee
The painter should not paint
what he sees, but
what will be seen.
~ Paul Klee
One eye sees, the other feels.
~ Paul Klee
I paint in order not to cry.
~ Paul Klee
Art does not reproduce the
visible; rather, it makes visible.
~ Paul Klee
All art is a memory of age-old
things, dark things, whose
fragments live in the artist.
~ Paul Klee
There is always hope, as long
as the canvases are empty.
~ Gustav Klimt
Whoever wants to know
something about me as an
artist which alone is significant,
they should look attentively
at my pictures and there
seek to recognize what I
am and what I want.
~ Gustav Klimt
I can paint and draw.
I believe this myself and
a few other people say that
they believe this too.
But I'm not certain
of whether it's true.
~ Gustav Klimt
Art is a line around
your thoughts.
~ Gustav Klimt
I believe in God, only
I spell it Nature.
~ Frank Lloyd Wright
The mind loves the unknown.
It loves images whose meaning
is unknown since the
meaning of the mind itself
is unknown.
~ Rene Magritte
I didn’t expect to recover from
my second operation but since
I did, I consider that I’m living
on borrowed time. Every day that
dawns is a gift to me and I take
it in that way. I accept it gratefully
without looking beyond it.
~ Henri Matisse
Creativity takes courage.
~ Henri Matisse
Don't try to be original.
Be simple. Be good technically,
and if there is something in you,
it will come out.
~ Henri Matisse
Don't wait for inspiration.
It comes while one is working.
~ Henri Matisse
There is nothing more difficult
for a truly creative painter
than to paint a rose, because
before he can do so has first
to forget all the roses that
were ever painted.
~ Henri Matisse
I don't paint things. I only paint
the difference between things.
~ Henri Matisse
The artist must see all things
as if he were seeing them for the
first time. All his life he must see
as he did when he was a child.
~ Henri Matisse
The artist is sort of a
proof-reader, blue-pencilling
the bad spelling of God.
~ H.L. Mencken
Art enables us to find
ourselves and lose
ourselves at the same time.
~ Thomas Merton
The richness I achieve comes
from nature, the source
of my inspiration.
~ Claude Monet
To see we must forget the
name of the thing we are
looking at.
~ Claude Monet
If I didn't start painting,
I would have raised chickens.
~ Grandma Moses
In the brush doing what it’s
doing it will stumble on what
one couldn’t do by oneself.
~ Robert Motherwell
The true work of art is
but a shadow of the
divine perfection.
~ Michelangelo
A man paints with his brains
and not with his hands.
~ Michelangelo (1475-1564)
The works must be conceived
with fire in the soul but
executed with clinical coolness.
~ Joan Miro
What I am seeking is not
the real and not the unreal but
rather the unconscious,
the mystery of the instinctive
in the human race.
~ Amadeo Modigliani
I hate flowers. I paint them
because they’re cheaper than
models and they don’t move.
~ Georgia O’Keeffe
Nobody sees a flower—really—
it is so small it takes time
—we haven’t time—and to see
takes time, like to have a
friend takes time.
~ Georgia O’Keeffe
I don’t very much enjoy looking
at paintings in general.
I know too much about them.
I take them apart.
~ Georgia O’Keeffe
Whenever art appears,
life disappears.
~ Francis Picabia
If my husband ever met
a woman on the street who
looked like one of his paintings
he would faint.
~Jacqueline Roque Picasso
We all know that Art is not
truth. Art is a lie that makes
us realize truth at least the
truth that is given us to
understand. The artist must
know the manner whereby to
convince others of the
truthfulness of his lies.
~ Pablo Picasso
The only difference between
me and a madman
is that I'm not mad.
~ Pablo Picasso
Everything you can
imagine is real.
~ Pablo Picasso
Art washes away from the
soul the dust of everyday life.
~ Pablo Picasso
Art is the lie that enables us
to realize the truth.
~ Pablo Picasso
Some painters transform the
sun into a yellow spot, others
transform a yellow spot
into the sun.
~ Pablo Picasso
When I was a child my mother
said to me, 'If you become a
soldier, you'll be a general.
If you become a monk, you'll
be the pope.' Instead,
I became a painter and
wound up as Picasso.
~ Pablo Picasso
Give me a museum and
I will fill it.
~ Pablo Picasso
Learn the rules like a pro,
so you can break them
like an artist.
~ Pablo Picasso
The chief enemy of creativity
is good sense.
~ Pablo Picasso
I do not seek. I find.
~ Pablo Picasso
Every act of creation is first
of all an act of destruction.
~ Pablo Picasso.
Pablo Picasso was once asked
how he knew which paintings
were his own, and which were
fakes. He replied, “If I like it,
I say it’s mine. If I don’t,
I say it’s a fake.”
The painting has a life of its
own. I try to let it come through.
~ Jackson Pollock
When I’m painting, I’m not aware
of what I’m doing. It’s only
after a ‘get acquainted period’
that I see what I’ve been about.
~ Jackson Pollock.
Art is too serious to be
taken seriously.
~ Adolph Reinhardt
The pain passes, but the
beauty remains.
~ Pierre-Auguste Renoir
(when asked why he continued to
paint with his painful arthritis
in his advanced years).
I just keep painting until I
feel like pinching.
Then I know it's right.
~ Pierre Auguste Renoir
(explaining how he achieved such
lifelike flesh tones in his nudes).
To any artist, worthy of the
name, all in nature is
beautiful, because his eyes,
fearlessly accepting all
exterior truth, read there,
as in an open book,
all the inner truth.
~ Auguste Rodin
Nothing is a waste of time if
you use the experience wisely.
~ Auguste Rodin
We don't make mistakes,
just happy little accidents.
~ Bob Ross
Every good composition is
above all a work of abstraction.
All good painters know this.
But the painter cannot dispense
with subjects altogether without
his work suffering
impoverishment.
~ Diego Rivera
For me, painting is a way to
forget life. It is a cry in the
night, a strangled laugh.
~ Georges Rouault
The world of reality has
its limits; the world of
imagination is boundless.
~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau
I invent nothing. I rediscover.
~ Auguste Rodin
Every time I paint a portrait,
I lose a friend.
~ John Singer Sargent
Be who you are and say what
you feel because those who
mind don’t matter and those
who matter don’t mind
~ Dr. Seuss
Art has no language.
~ Benedikt Taschen
It is a gratification to me to
know that I am ignorant of
art . . . because people who
understand art find nothing in
pictures but blemishes.
~ Mark Twain
The only time I feel alive
is when I'm painting.
~ Vincent van Gogh
. . . and then, I have nature and
art and poetry, and if that is
not enough, what is enough?
~ Vincent van Gogh
I dream my painting and
I paint my dream.
~ Vincent van Gogh
It is good to love many things,
for therein lies the true strength,
and whosoever loves much
performs much, and can
accomplish much, and what is
done in love is well done.
~ Vincent van Gogh
A good picture is equivalent
to a good deed.
~ Vincent van Gogh
Paintings have a life of their
own that derives from the
painter’s soul.
~ Vincent van Gogh
I would rather die of
passion than
of boredom.
~ Vincent van Gogh
There is nothing more truly
artistic than to love people.
~ Vincent van Gogh
Art is to console those who
are broken by life.
~ Vincent van Gogh
There is nothing more truly
artistic than to love people.
~Vincent van Gogh
The eye sees a thing more
clearly in dreams than the
imagination awake.
~ Vincent van Gogh
Painting is poetry that is seen
rather than felt, and poetry is
painting that is felt
rather than seen.
~ Leonardo da Vinci
A painter should begin every
canvas with a wash of black,
because all things in nature are
dark except where exposed
by the light.
~ Leonardo da Vinci
I have been impressed
with the urgency of doing.
Knowing is not enough;
we must apply. Being willing
is not enough; we must do.
~ Leonardo da Vinci
Every now and then go away,
even briefly, have a little
relaxation, for when you come
back to your work your
judgement will be surer;
since to remain constantly at
work will cause you
to lose power.
~ Leonardo da Vinci
Art is never finished,
only abandoned.
~ Leonardo da Vinci
Painting is poetry that is seen
rather than felt, and poetry is
painting that is felt
rather than seen.
~ Leonardo da Vinci
The painter has the Universe
in his mind and hands.
~ Leonardo da Vinci
Making money is art and
working is art and good
business is the best art.
~ Andy Warhol
Art is what you can
get away with.
~ Andy Warhol
Pop art is a way of
liking things.
~ Andy Warhol
Art is a Verb, not a Noun.
~ Sylvia White
Every portrait that is painted
with feeling is a portrait of the
artist, not of the sitter.
~ Oscar Wilde,
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Art is the only serious thing
in the world. And the artist is
the only person who
is never serious.
~ Oscar Wilde
The arts are an even better
barometer of what is happening
in our world than the
stock market or the
debates in Congress.
~ Hendrik Willem Van Loon
To practise any art,
no matter how badly,
is a way to make your
soul grow. So do it.
~ Kurt Vonnegut
I dream a lot. I do more painting
when I'm not painting.
It's in the subconscious.
~ Andrew Wyeth