Life sometimes takes such surprising twists and turns that we can either be thrown off balance and never recover, or we can be led to new and exciting adventures and possibilities, especially if we are awake enough to notice and brave enough to take advantage. My life is now entering a new phase of wonder [...]
"Superficially there is negligence, but deep down in people there is love and craving for the beautiful. There is a past, present and future in the fall of a dress. Don’t arrange it.Keep up the work. Try to reduce everything you see to the utmost simplicity. It is harder to see a landscape than [...]
"Do not require of your work the finish that anyone may demand of you, but insist on the finish which you demand. It will not do to have your fine thought yesterday, and paint your picture today. Good painting is a result of effort to obtain order, and the order must go to all the [...]
"It is not too much to say that art is the noting of the existence of order throughout the world, and so, order stirs imagination and inspires one to reproduce this beautiful relationship existing in the universe, as best one can. Technique is to me merely a language, and as I see life more and [...]
... continued from More Art Spirit I was searching for inspiration today to work on some drawing or painting – as a newbie art student – and I was resisting working on my blog. All I had to do was pick up this book and I got inspired to do both. First this, to [...]
... continued from The Art Spirit "The man who has honesty, integrity, the love of inquiry, the desire to see beyond, is ready to appreciate good art. He needs no one to give him an art education; he is already qualified. He needs but to see pictures with his active mind, look into them for [...]
I’ve been reading this wonderful book by Robert Henri – an artist and teacher of art almost a century ago. It not only has great advice and suggestions for artists, but it strikes me that everything in this book can be applied to all aspects of life. To me it’s all about paying attention, being [...]
Georgia O'Keeffe When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they [...]
I became a painter because I wanted to raise painting to the level of poignancy of music and poetry. Mark Rothko I don’t want to be struck by lightning and don’t need certain slants of light in order to write. Toni Morrison The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: The bad [...]
I’ve been doing some drawing and painting lately for the first time ever, and really trying to bring my Beginner’s Mind to all of it. The quotes this month are all from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, which has been sitting on my bookshelf unread since it was published in 1989. Until [...]
