Be Inspired by These 40 Brilliant Quotes from Famous Artists
As an artist, it’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind of creating and forget about the bigger picture. From Michelangelo to Banksy, the quotes of artists have the power to motivate us, challenge us, and encourage us to embrace our creativity.
Here are 40 brilliant quotes from famous fine artists, photographers, and sculptors throughout history that are sure to inspire you:
- “The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.” – Leonardo da Vinci
- “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” – Edgar Degas
- “I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart.” – Vincent van Gogh
- “I paint objects as I think of them, not as I see them.” – Pablo Picasso
- “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” – Ansel Adams
- “They say human eyes are the mirror of the soul, and I used to draw them too carelessly. Say, to express the anger, I just drew some triangular eyes. I drew obviously-angry eyes, projected my anger there, and somehow released my pent-up emotions. About ten years ago, however, I became more interested in expressing complex feelings in a more complex way. I began to stop and think, to take a breath before letting everything out.” – Yoshitomo Nara
- “The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.” – Michelangelo
- “I dream my painting and I paint my dream.” – Vincent van Gogh
- “Color is my day-long obsession, joy, and torment.” – Claude Monet
- “The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.” – Frida Kahlo
- “Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” – Aaron Siskind
- “To create one’s world in any of the arts takes courage.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
- “Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.” – Pablo Picasso
- “Every artist was first an amateur.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.” – Frida Kahlo
- “The more I paint the more I like everything.” – Jean-Michel Basquiat
- “When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I’d like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph.” – Annie Leibovitz
- “The purpose of art is to make the invisible visible.” – Paul Klee
- “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” – Andy Warhol
- “Art is a harmony parallel with nature.” – Paul Cezanne
- “The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.” – Francis Bacon
- “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” – Pablo Picasso
- “Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.” – Leonardo da Vinci
- “Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.” – Jackson Pollock
- “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
- “I just want to make the world a better-looking place. If you don’t like it, you can paint over it!” – Banksy
- “Photography is an art of observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” – Elliott Erwitt
- “A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.” – Ansel Adams
- “What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time.” – John Berger
- “Photography is a love affair with life.” – Burk Uzzle
- “Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.” – Edgar Degas
- “Great art picks up where nature ends.” – Marc Chagall
- “Creativity takes courage.” – Henri Matisse
- “Art is the highest form of hope.” – Gerhard Richter
- “My goal is never to copy. Create a new style.” – Tamara de Lempicka
- “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” – Pablo Picasso
- “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward, you can remove all traces of reality.” – Pablo Picasso
- “The artist’s job is to be a witness to his time in history.” – Robert Rauschenberg
- “To be an artist is to believe in life.” – Henry Moore
- “Art is the magic mirror that we create to turn invisible dreams into visible pictures.” – Ernst Haas
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