Painters on Painting
“Painting is concerned with all the ten attributes of sight: darkness
and light, solidity and color, form and position, distance and nearness,
motion and rest.”
Leonardo daVinci, Leonardo’s Literary Works
“The painter who has no doubt about his own ability will attain very
little. When his work succeeds beyond his judgment, the artist acquires
nothing. But when his judgment is superior to his work, he will never cease
to improve, unless his love of gain interferes and retards his progress.”
Leonardo daVinci, A Treatise on Painting
“In painting there is always a luminous point; but this point
must be unique. You may place it where you wish; in a cloud, in
the reflection of the water, or in a bonnet. However, there must only
be a single tone of this value.”
Jean Baptiste Camille Cord
“The searcher after Fantasy should not avoid reality; he should
know how to present the outer appearance of things together with their
inner content. The early Italian painters possessed this faculty to an
exceptional degree. They created an inner world, yet left the exterior
shell of reality intact.”
George Grosz, George Grosz Drawings
“Thus it is that simple colors can act upon the inner feelings with
all the more force because they are simple. A blue, for instance, accompanied
by the shimmer of its complementaries, acts upon the feelings like a sharp blow
on a gong. The same with red and yellow; and the artist must be able to sound
them when he needs to.:
Henri Matisse, La Chapelle du Rosaire
