Paintings Quotes

“The paintings of Francis Bacon to my eye are very beautiful. The paintings of Bosch or Goya are to my eye very beautiful. I've also stood in front of those same paintings with people who've said, 'let's get on to the Botticellis as soon as possible.' I have lingered, of course.”
― Clive Barker

“Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.”
― Ansel Adams

“Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.”
― Wassily Kandinsky , Concerning the Spiritual in Art

“Ah, merciless Love, is there any length to which you cannot force the human heart to go?”
― Virgil, The Aeneid

“The reason some portraits don't look true to life is that some people make no effort to resemble their pictures.”
― Salvador Dalí

“I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music. ”
― Joan Miro

“A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.”
― Paul Cezanne

“I was reading about animals a while back and there was this motherfucking scientist in France back in the thirties or forties or whenever the motherfuck it was and he was trying to get apes to draw these pictures, to make art pictures like the kinds of pictures in serious motherfucking paintings that you see in museums and shit. So the scientist keeps showing the apes these paintings and giving them charcoal pencils to draw with and then one day one of the apes finally draws something but it’s not the art pictures that it draws. What it draws is the bars of its own motherfucking cage. Its own motherfucking cage! Man, that's the truth, ain't it?”
― Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

“When it comes to forming opinions on works of art, people look to others. Most people end up liking paintings, songs and movies just because the majority have a favourable opinion about them. Ultimately it’s all about the brand value of the artist.”
― Abhaidev, The Influencer: Speed Must Have a Limit

“Art is a harmony parallel with nature”
― Paul Cezanne, Cezanne: Mont Sainte-Victoire

“I swing my arms to loosen myself up. Place my fists on my hips. then drop them to my sides. Saliva's filling my mouth at a ridiculous rate and i feel vomit at the back of my throat. I swallow hard and open my lips so I can get the stupid line out and go hide in the woods and-that's when i start crying.”
― Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay

“Since the world is ending,” Peter quoted from behind us, “why not let the children touch the paintings?”
― Ben Lerner, 10:04

“There is only one road to follow, that of analysis of the basic elements in order to arrive ultimately at an adequate graphic expression.”
― Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art

“This is a perfectly good picture. And if I didn't know you, I would be impressed and charmed. But I do know you."
He thought some more, wondering whether he dared say precisely what he felt, for he knew he could never explain exactly why the idea came to him. "It's the painting of a dutiful daughter," he said eventually, looking at her cautiously to see her reaction. "You want to please. You are always aware of what the person looking at this picture will think of it. Because of that you've missed something important. Does that make sense?"
She thought, then nodded. "All right," she said grudgingly and with just a touch of despair in her voice. "You win."
Julien grunted. "Have another go, then. I shall come back and come back until you figure it out."
"And you'll know?"
"You'll know. I will merely get the benefit of it.”
― Iain Pears, The Dream of Scipio

“He would always be around you, not in these words or paintings, but in your heart. He will always be in happy memories. You can't cage his worth in few pages and colors.”
― Vidushi Gupta, The Unending Maze: Because Finding Your Way Out Has Never Been More Difficult

“Aryami Bose's home had been closed up for years, inhabited only by books and paintings, but the spectre of thousands of memories imprisoned between its walls still permeated the house.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Midnight Palace

“On the opposite wall was a Damien Hirst spot painting, bought by Arabella after a decent bonus season. Roger's considered view of the painting, looking at it from aesthetic, art-historical, interior-design, and psychological points of view, was that it had cost forty-seven thousand pounds, plus VAT.”
― John Lanchester, Capital

“The image titled “The Homeless, Psalm 85:10,” featured on the cover of ELEMENTAL, can evoke multiple levels of response. They may include the spiritual in the form of a studied meditation upon the multidimensional qualities of the painting itself; or an extended contemplation of the scripture in the title, which in the King James Bible reads as follows: “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” The painting can also inspire a physical response in the form of tears as it calls to mind its more earth-bound aspects; namely, the very serious plight of those who truly are homeless in this world, whether born into such a condition, or forced into it by poverty or war.”
― Aberjhani, Elemental: The Power of Illuminated Love

“I don't want these. They're mud and they've got no color. Or at least the color is different from what I'm used to. Take any American city, in autumn, or in winter, when the light makes the colors dance and flow, and look at it from a distant hill or from a boat in the bay or on the river, and you will see in any section of the view far better paintings than in this lentil soup that you people have to pedigree in order to love. I may be a thief, but I know color when I see it in the flash of heaven or in the Devil's opposing tricks, and I know mud. Mr. Knoedler, you needn't worry about your paintings anymore. I'm not going to steal them. I don't like them.

Sincerely yours,
P. Soames”
― Mark Helprin, Winter's Tale

“I had learned that most people preferred meaningless paintings to meaningful conversations, and as a result, I struggled to connect with others.”
― Santosh Kalwar, The Society In Opposition To Everything

“Everybody must like something and I like seeing painted pictures.”
― Gertrude Stein, Lectures in America

“Continuo a vender alguns quadros através da galeria de Nice, é certo, mas tenho sempre dificuldade em desfazer-me das telas e sobretudo àquele preço exploratório… mas enfim, um quadro tem de seguir a sua viagem! Talvez os volte a encontrar. Quanto ao meu futuro? A verdade é que não sei o que quero fazer a partir de agora…”
― Rui Carruço

“The offending canvas stood in the middle of the room under another stained tarp — like an apparition.”
― Marcel M. du Plessis, The Curse of Balar

“What interested these painters was evidently the fact that my clothes were torn off, which allowed them to paint a naked woman in distress, always of interest to a certain kind of man.”
― Margaret Atwood, Old Babes in the Wood: Stories

“Няма по-голямо щастие за един човек на изкуството, от това да бъде оценен приживе...


There is no greater happiness for an artist than to be appreciated during his lifetime...”
― Petur Krustev Петър Кръстев

“Cameras and photographs were not permitted in the camps, so I recorded everything in sketches, drawings, and paintings.”
― Mine Okubo, Citizen 13660

“All great paintings have an aura, which derives, in part, from their singularity.”
― Sebastian Smee, The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art

“Ernst Kirchner: I'm glad, no proud that those brown shirts are burning my paintings.

Max Klinger: What do you mean?

Kirchner: Imagine how I would feel if monsters like that tolerated my work.”
― Percival Everett, Erasure

“Paintings are bits of colourful gossip spread mostly on canvas.”
― Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

“To me, migration means movement. While I was painting, I thought about trains and people walking to the stations. I thought about field hands leaving their farms to become factory workers, and about the families that sometimes got left behind. The choices made were hard ones, so I wanted to show what made the people get on those northbound trains. I also wanted to show just what it cost to ride them. Uprooting yourself from one way of life to make your way in another involves conflict and struggle. But out of the struggle comes a kind of power, and even beauty. I tried to convey this in the rhythm of the pictures, and in the repetition of certain images.

"And the migrants kept coming" is a refrain of triumph over adversity. My family and others left the South on a quest for freedom, justice, and dignity. If our story rings true for you today, then it must still strike a chord in our American experience.”
― Jacob Lawrence, The Great Migration: An American Story