Paint Quotes: Inspiring Words for Artists and Creatives

"I want to paint big, bright, optimistic pictures of the place I love"

John Dyer, Artist

"Nothing makes me so happy as to observe nature and to paint what I see"

Henri Rousseau, Artist

"I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things"

Henri Matisse, Artist

"I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait"

Salvador Dali, Artist

"Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? no. Just as one can never learn how to paint"

Pablo Picasso, Artist

"The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?"

Pablo Picasso, Artist

"I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them"

Pablo Picasso, Artist

"I studied all about Gauguin. He was a banker. He was a banker who - he used to paint on Sundays. And one day he hated himself for painting on Sundays"

Anthony Quinn, Actor

"When I travel, I draw and paint sketches which is great fun. And as long as you are fully aware that it has nothing to do with actual art, I think that's all right"

Arne Jacobsen, Architect

"Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye"

Bill Hicks, Comedian

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best"

Frida Kahlo, Painter

"Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That's how I get my kicks"

Edward Koch, Politician

"He knows much of what men paint themselves would blister in the light of what they are"

Edwin A. Robinson

"There was a village watercolour society and they'd come and paint in my field. I watched them from the window, the way they would struggle this way and that to find the perfect moment. God has made every angle on that beautiful, and I felt that tremendously"

Nicolas Roeg, Director

"But I'm the only one who can paint the moon, because I'm the only one who knows whether that's right or not"

Alan Bean, Astronaut

"I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence"

Man Ray, Photographer

"I play music, I paint - these things come from your depths"

John Lurie, Actor

"Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend"

John Singer Sargent, Artist

"If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint"

Edward Hopper, Artist

"I paint German artists whom I admire. I paint their pictures, their work as painters, and their portraits too. But oddly enough, each of these portraits ends up as a picture of a woman with blonde hair. I myself have never been able to work out why this happens"

Georg Baselitz, Artist

"There are all sorts of reasons why I don't do much work in the theatre, the main one being that after two performances I feel I've given all I can. I hate repetition, I really do. It's like asking a painter to paint he same picture every day of his life"

Peter Cushing, Actor

"I did not use paint, I made myself up morally"

Eleanora Duse, Actress

"Now I'm way into suits that I can put on whether I took a shower or not, and wear barefoot and paint my toes black or whatever color the suit is. It's very cool to wear suits like that. Roll up the sleeves and just say yee-haw"

Steven Tyler, Musician

"Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?"

Pablo Picasso, Artist

"But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of"

Lord Byron, Poet

"Shadows sometimes people don't see shadows. The Chinese of course never paint them in pictures, oriental art never deals with shadow. But I noticed these shadows and I knew it meant it was sunny"

David Hockney, Artist

"If we could but paint with the hand what we see with the eye"

Honore de Balzac, Novelist

"Learning lines is on my mind until I do know them. I'll read the paper or paint the house to keep from starting to memorize. I've never found an easy way"

Paul Lynde, Comedian

"A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears"

Gertrude Stein, Author

"One of the pleasant things those of us who write or paint do is to have the daily miracle. It does come"

Gertrude Stein, Author

"It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else"

Henri Matisse, Artist

"I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me"

Henri Matisse, Artist

"There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted"

Henri Matisse, Artist

"I dream of painting and then I paint my dream"

Vincent Van Gogh, Artist

"When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the stars"

Vincent Van Gogh, Artist

"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, Artist

"If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal"

Norman Vincent Peale, Clergyman

"I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint"

Michelangelo, Artist

"Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort. If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass"

Fran Lebowitz, Journalist

"Concerning God, freewill and destiny: Of all that earth has been or yet may be, all that vain men imagine or believe, or hope can paint or suffering may achieve, we descanted"

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet

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