artist quotes

practice & motivation

“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced” – Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch painter)

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” – Michelangelo (Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, and poet)

“Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while working.” – Henri Matisse (French painter and sculptor)

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou (American author and poet)

“The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.” – Bruce Lee (Hong Kong and Chinese-American martial artist and actor)

“An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.” – Charles Horton Cooley (American sociologist and professor)

“Inspiration does exist but it must find you working.” – Pablo Picasso (Spanish painter and sculptor)

“An artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.” – Eugene Delacroix (French painter)

“We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.” – Bob Ross (American painter and tv personality)

Originality

“Creative work is a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.” – Steven Pressfield (American author)

“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live only as you can.” – Neil Gaiman (English author)

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” – Oscar Wilde (Irish author, poet, and playwright)

“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.” – Georgia O’Keeffe (American painter)

“It is better to be nothing than [to be] a follower of other painters. The wise man has said: when one follows another one is always behind.” – Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (French painter)

“In our time there are many artists who do something because it is new; they see their value and their justification in this newness. They are deceiving themselves; novelty is seldom the essential. This has to do with one thing only; making a subject better from its intrinsic nature.” – Henri de Toulouse Lautrec (French painter)

confidence

“There is no innovation and creativity without failure.” – Brene Brown (American author and research professor)

“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – Sylvia Plath (American author and poet)

“Creativity takes courage.” – Henri Matisse (French painter and sculptor)

“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.” – Salvador Dali (Spanish painter)

“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.” – Robert Hughes (Australian writer and art critic)

“Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you’re passionate about something, then you’re more willing to take risks.” – Yo-Yo Ma (world renowned cellist)

what is art?

“Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.” – Ai Weiwei (Chinese artist)

“Art is not a thing, it is a way.” – Elbert Hubbard (American writer and artist)

“There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” – Vincent van Gogh (Dutch painter)

“Poets paint with words, painters speak with works.” – Annibale Carracci (Italian painter)

“To be an artist is to believe in life.” – Henry Moore (English artist)

“There is no retirement for an artist, it’s your way of living so there’s no end to it.” – Henry Moore (English artist)

“If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” – Edward Hopper (American painter)

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” – Leonardo Da Vinci (Italian painter, sculptor, engineer, inventor, and writer)

Art & Soul

“You use a glass mirror to see your face. You use works of art to see your soul.” – George Bernard Shaw (Irish playwright)

“The creative adult is the child who survived.” – Ursula Le Guin (American author)

“Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” – Stella Adler (America actress)

“Art is the stored honey of the human soul.” – Theodore Dreiser (American novelist and journalist)

“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.” – Kurt Vonnegut (American author)

“A work of art which isn’t based on feeling isn’t art at all.” – Paul Cézanne (French painter)

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” – Henry Ward Beecher (American clergyman, social reformer, and abolitionist)

 “Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul.” – Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch painter)

“I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart.” – Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch painter)

Thinking vs. Feeling

““When one is painting, one does not think.” – Raphael (Italian painter and architect)

“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” – Ray Bradbury (American author)

“If you paint a man leaning over, your own back must ache.” – N.C. Wyeth (American painter and illustrator)

“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” – Robert Henri (American painter)