Top 180 Quotes & Sayings by Robert Genn - Page 3

A high price may be part of the mystique in selling difficult art.

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana has the ability to take you from placidity to power in one sonic breath. It is music of dignity and strength, with primitive, energetic passages, evoking absolute beauty from the simplest of phrases. It brings up something that has everything to do with significance - squeezing joy and motif that you just can't drop - it stays with you.

Music is the most abstract of the arts and it expresses the sound of the universe itself. These are the real rhythms that stimulate the artist's mind and guide his hand.

There is no progress without product.

While knowledge of tools and the love of motif may be in your backpack, and all mountains may be measured by their previous heroes, art must exist for you in a place beyond the judgment of others.

Start with the foreground. Compositions fail when the foreground is treated as an afterthought.

A simple equation for the production of successful art work is lots of reference material plus lots of art supplies equals lots of painting happiness.

Priests are often well-meaning people who haven't yet looked too thoroughly into comparative religion.

You're right, super-realism is back in style.

The thing about art is that life is in no danger of being meaningless.

No one would have the courage to walk up to a writer and ask to look at the last few pages of his manuscript, but they feel perfectly comfortable staring over an artist's shoulder while he is trying to paint.

Dogs are angels sent from heaven in order to help us to be better people.

Abstract understanding doesn't mean arbitrary sloshing and messing. Abstract art is controlled visual magic based on laws and methodology. Abstraction generally involves implication, suggestion and mystery rather that obvious description. Like a good poem, a good abstraction attacks your feelings before your understanding. Abstraction within realism adds zest and excitement to otherwise dull subject matter. Abstract understanding takes time and patience.

In acrylics, what you lose on the straights you make up for on the corners.

So who are we going to blame for our disappointments and our failures?

The overly-verbal artist is led by his understanding of things--rather than by direct observation of things as they are.

Which is better--feeling good or getting good?

According to Mednick, after sleep, people are 33 percent more likely to be creative.

Artists are supposed to be the ones with imagination. A good part of our job description is to get regular people to use theirs.

Do something others will have the desire to plagiarize but will find difficult to do.

No one is going to hand you an organizational chart. You have to hand it to yourself.

When you sit down to paint or draw, you form yourself into a posture of praise

Our human landscape is overburdened with competitions and contests. Art need not be a contest. Art is a personal quest for quality. Quality is the forerunner of acceptance. Character is the forerunner of quality. Be your own discriminating connoisseur.

As self-governing entities, artists have a profound interest in change. Embracing change, we embrace growth and we embrace our future.

Incompetence, in my books, is the failure of the critical faculties to interfere constructively with the natural flow.

Once as I sat painting, I became aware of a man's face hovering near me, moving closer and closer to the panel I was working on. When he spoke he said, 'That is a fantastic brush!

Prices need to be fair, appropriate and consistent.

While obsessive behavior may be an antisocial plague to societies and communities at large, it's total moxie when lone practitioners catch it.

I suppose what you're doing as a painter is making a record of your trip through life. I can't think of any job that is quite as satisfactory as doing a painting.

The studio is an extension of the sandbox and the kindergarten playroom. It has a dynamic unlike any office or factory. It's a room at the service of a dreamer on her way to becoming a master.

The artist needs to sit patiently at the feet of Nature in all Her moods and nuances and silently develop the skills to honour Her. There are no recipes for Autumn.

Certain music is terrifically inspirational and it is possible, months or even years afterwards, to look at a painting and remember the music that was playing during its execution.

As you do your work, you discover what you love to do.

Quality is always in style.

An early flourish of confidence is useful. Then there's the small crudities - the slubs and bumps that come with outdoor work - the odd charm of imprecision.

One compositional element suggests and asks for another. This is what makes the activity interesting.

The most expensive bottle of wine ever sold - a 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux, supposedly once the property of Thomas Jefferson... It was sold at Christie's in London in 1985 for $156,000.00. Like a lot of high-priced art, the bottle is essentially undrinkable.

In painting you cover up your sins and everyone thinks you're naturally talented.

Words are small straitjackets when put around creative flourishes and maneuverings.

Art is a path on which we honour our world.

The oceans of art are awash with people who can't paint. When those who can't paint notice those who can, they are sometimes not inclined to accept them as serious like themselves. It's an unfortunate quirk of human nature and ought not to be fretted over.

It is necessary to put yourself out for rejection, and accept that you will be rejected.

Waiting for inspiration is for amateurs; professionals get to work.

As well as many subspecies, the main blocks are fear of failure after previous success, fear of success due to a sense of unworthiness, lack of potential venue, jaded attitude, crisis of confidence, evidence of persistent poor quality, lackadaisical motivation, and common everyday shortage of ideas.

Fact is, perfection is boring.

The guy may be totally motivated, connected and inspired, but if he doesn't know how to do it, he's not the guy to take out your appendix.

We are trying to evoke and reinforce meanings from the spaces we cover and the times we're given. Short or long this becomes our purpose. What we artists do is important stuff.

God may work in light, but we mortals work in pigment.

The area between the nose and the chin, the subject of kissing and the vehicle for speech, is perhaps even more known and set upon than the eyes. The mouth is also riddled with a complex interweaving of folds, curves, flats and lost-and-found edges. These nuances are needed by a perceptive person who might try to understand human nature.

As every artist who has used the method knows - photography's a loyal slave and a tyrannical master.

I have always found it a testament to the importance of painting that the first thing many people do when their home is on fire is to grab their paintings and then run out.

More than any other colour, red is loaded for action.

In life and art it's better to be an enthusiastic amateur than a jaded professional.

It's better to have a small diamond than a large piece of glass.

Our currency is what we are able to make.

Artists... do not need the applause or condemnation of the critics, the ideas of other artists, or the demands of the collectors.

For all of us, self-briefing before going out or starting a project sharpens artistic wit.

In acrylic, happiness comes a bit faster.

People suspend judgment in the presence of mystery.

I always thought signing was an artist's honour and guarantee of authenticity.