It’s the waning autumn of the year. We’re seeing (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) the days shorten and the night-shadows creep in earlier each evening. Art shines a light that can counter the dark.
What follows are some inspiring quotes about art and art-making – any one of which, if sufficiently understood by enough thoughtful human beings, could illuminate and change the world for the better.
“Any fool can be happy. It takes (someone) with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.”
― Clive Barker
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
― (Berthold Auerbach.)
A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.
― Salvador Dali (attrib.)
Barbara Tapp, Red Scissors, Watercolor, 10 x 14 in. Barbara shares her unique watercolor method in her downloadable video, The Barbara Tapp Watercolor Method
“If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.”
― Émile Zola
“Every landscape that is painted with feeling is a symbolic portrait of the artist and has very little to do with the particular geography of the place itself.”
―Art Hertz
“There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun”
― Pablo Picasso
Cheri Christensen, Feathered Innocence, 10 x 8 in. Cheri teaches her renowned color and backlighting techniques in several videos available here.
“One eye sees, the other feels.”
― Paul Klee
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
― Thomas Merton
Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.
― John Lubbock
Photo of plein air work by Ryan Jensen in natural habitat.
“Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.”
― Oscar Wilde
Genius is nothing more than an intellectual form of love. “He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser – sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses…. And what is Genius but finer love, a love impersonal, for all, a love of the flower and perfection of things, and a desire to draw a new picture or copy of the same?” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ryan Jensen, whose work bookends this issue, has a video out called LOOSEN UP YOUR PAINTINGS. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced master, Ryan’s expert guidance will help you break free from rigid techniques and give you a whole new lens to see the world. If you’re ready to benefit from step-by-step instructions on brushwork, embracing imperfection, and creating paintings that are full of life and energy, check out Ryan’s new video here.
