WindTurtle Studio
Art and Artists
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, Or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; But it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of the arts. – Henry David Thoreau The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. — Michaelangelo
I am always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do them. — Pablo Picasso
Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art. — Remy de Gourmont
Without great solitude, no serious work is possible. — Pablo Picasso
Do not hate or fear the artist in yourselves...
Honor and love him...do not try to possess him.
Trust him as nobly as you trust tomorrow.
Only the artist in yourself is more
truthful than the night. — Edward E. Cummings
Stern then played the arpeggio again, with the notes separated by perhaps a quarter of a second. He played it a dozen more times; each time the notes were fractionally closer, until they once again became a seamless whole again.
‘How did you do that?’ demanded Cavett, astonished. Stern began to talk about how he practiced six hours a day for 25 years, until the muscles in his hands were extremely strong and completely under his command. He grew reflective for a moment, and then said that because he had achieved absolute control of his instrument, he felt comfortable being completely spontaneous.
‘When I perform,’ Stern said, ‘all I pay attention to is my feelings.’
— Bruno Bettelheim and Alvin A. Rosenfeld, The Art of the Obvious
Everyone wants to understand painting. Why is there no attempt to understand the song of the birds? — Pablo Picasso
The greater the artist, the greater the doubt; perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize. — Robert Hughes, Time Magazine
Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse. — Winston Churchill, To Royal Academy of Arts, Time 11 May 53
There is suffering in the light; in excess it burns. Flame is hostile to the wing. To burn and yet to fly, this is the miracle of genius. — Victor Hugo
Life is a big canvas, throw all the paint on it you can. — Danny Kaye
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. — Pablo Picasso
All good art is in the nature of a letter written to amuse a sick friend. Too much art, particularly in our time, is only a letter written to oneself. — W. H. Auden
Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness. — George Jean Nathan
I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I, which is my life—the power to create. — Vincent Van Gogh
The enjoyment of art is the only remaining ecstasy that is neither immoral or illegal. — The Dark Corner
If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all. — Michelangelo
At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since. — Salvador Dali
The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most. — John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice