My favorite collections of inspiring Quotes about Art by great artists, photographers, philosophers, painters, and art critics that motivate and help me get creative!
One of my all-time favorite Quotes about Art “To create a work of art is to create the world.” by none other than the great artist Kandinsky whose work is spiritual!
I love “collecting” quotes. I write down quotes about art, quotes about travel, quotes about nature, quotes about flowers, quotes about happiness, quotes about fashion, quotes about love & life… On the wall above my desk is a quote my son wrote in kindergarten, It inspires me every day… to do better, be better, and work on the things that tug my heart.
Talent doesn’t come easy, It comes with hard work
Whether you are looking for some inspiration or motivation to start creating traditional art, digital art, or NFTs, I hope this collection of all my favorite inspirational art quotes by artists, painters, philosophers, photographers and art critics gets you excited to explore your creativity!
Also linked in this article are works of some of the artists that I have enjoyed seeing in galleries and museums around the world, Enjoy!
WHAT IS IN THIS POST
Art Quotes about Who is an Artist!
The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.
― Wassily Kandinsky
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.
― Pablo Picasso
A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.
― Salvador Dali
He who works with his hands is a labourer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.
― Saint Francis of Assisi
The artist is not a different kind of person, but every person is a different kind of artist.
― Eric Gill
The great artists of the past were aware that human life is full of chaos and suffering. But they had a remedy for this. And the name of that remedy was ‘beauty’. The beautiful work of art brings consolation in sorrow and affirmation in joy. It shows human life to be worthwhile.
― Roger Scruton
The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.
― Kandinsky
It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.
― Albert Einstein
You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at the picture for a second and think of it all your life.
― Joan Miro
The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.
― Leonardo da Vinci
Never worry about being obsessive. I like obsessive people. Obsessive people make great art.
― Susan Sontag
Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.
― Ray Bradbury
Artists do not own the meaning of their work.
― Roberta Smith
The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.
― Piet Mondrian
Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.
― Leo Tolstoy
Tell your own story and you will be interesting.
— Louise Bourgeois
I love these 33 rules of How to be an Artist by art critic Jerry Saltz
Famous Art Quotes by Great Artists
A few of my favorite inspirational art quotes, by great artists ― painters, photographers, and philosophers.
What keeps my heart awake is colourful silence.
― Claude Monet
Those who do not want to imitate anything produce nothing.
― Salvador Dali
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
― Pablo Picasso (a few more Picasso works linked here)
Art is a line around your thoughts.
― Gustav Klimt
I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.
― Georgia O’Keeffe
More important than a work of art itself is what it will sow. Art can die, a painting can disappear. What counts is the seed.
― Joan Miro
Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty?
― Paul Gauguin
A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.
― Paul Cezanne
You don’t take a photograph, you make it.
― Ansel Adams
Art is not made for anybody and is, at the same time, for everybody.
― Piet Mondrian
There is no “must” in art, because art is free.
Color is a power which directly influences the soul.
The sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with base notes, or dark lake with the treble.
― Kandinsky
Creativity takes courage.
― Henri Matisse
Every artist was first an amateur.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Finding your own style is not easy, but once found it brings complete happiness. It gives you self-confidence, always.”
― Yves Saint Laurent
To my mind a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful and pretty. There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is, without creating still more of them.
― Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.
― René Magritte
If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.
― Marc Chagall
Art is never finished, only abandoned.
― Leonardo da Vinci
Quotes About Painting
Painting from nature is not copying the object, it’s realising one’s sensations.
― Paul Cezanne
Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.
― Pablo Picasso
The Painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.
― Leonardo Da Vinci
I paint flowers so they will not die.
― Frida Kahlo
Don’t paint the object, paint its effect.
― Unknown
Painting is the grandchild of nature. It is related to God.
― Rembrandt
All painting – the painting of the past as well as of the present – shows us that its essential plastic means we are only line and color.
― Piet Mondrian
Painting is a thundering collision of different worlds, intended to create a new world in and from the struggle with one another, a new world which is the work of art.
― Kandinsky
When I paint, I never think of selling. People fail to understand that we paint in order to experiment and to develop ourselves as we strive for greater heights.
― Edvard Munch
Art Quotes for Drawing
My idea of heaven is to wake up, have a good breakfast, and spend the rest of the day drawing.
― Peter Falk
For me drawing is an attempt to understand what I feel about the world I live in.
― Brian Froud
Drawing is not what one sees, but what one can make others see.
― Edgar Degas
Drawing at its best is not what your eyes see but what our mind understands.
― Millard Sheets
Creativity is taking the best skills and techniques from experts around you and improving upon them.
― Unknown
One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil.
― Balthus
Drawing is a form of probing. And the first generic impulse to draw derives from the human need to search, to plot points, to place things and to place oneself.
― John Berger
Drawing is vision on paper.
― Andrew Loomis
Sketching is almost everything. It is the painter’s identity, his style, his conviction, and then colour is just a gift to the drawing.
― Fernando Botero
Learning to draw is really a matter of learning to see – to see correctly – and that means a good deal more than merely looking with the eye.
― Kimon Nicolaides
The Power of Practice: Art Quotes
As Malcolm Gladwell discussed in his bestseller, “Outliers”, to become an expert it takes 10000 hours of deliberate practice, showing us the power of practice!
Practice what you know and it will help you to make clear what you do not know.
― Rembrandt
As I work at my drawings, day after day, what seemed unattainable before is now gradually becoming possible. Slowly, I’m learning to observe and measure. I don’t stand quite so helpless before nature any longer.
― Vincent van Gogh
Passions are not found, they are developed.
― Unknown
Art is not about Understanding. Or Mastery.
― Jerry Saltz
Stay firmly in your path and dare. Be wild two hours a day!
― Paul Gauguin
Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.
― Pablo Picasso
I leave you with this last quote about creativity by Osho:
“Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.”
― Osho, Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within
I hope these inspirational quotes about art, painting, drawing by great artists and art critics help you overcome your artist’s block and propels you to create your own masterpiece… I know reading these always leaves me inspired!
I’ve included a FREE downloadable PDF of all these 50 Inspiring Art Quotes so you can keep them handy for inspiration.
Do you have a favorite art quote that inspires you? Make sure to share it in the comments section.
You might also like these collections of quotes:
Best African Proverbs and Quotes
Quotes About Happiness
Best Travel Quotes & Captions
See a visual story of Travel Quotes here
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