A Quote by Vincent Van Gogh

Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don't know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, ‘You can't do a thing’. The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerizes some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of `you can't' once and for all.

Vincent Van Gogh

Quote Topics

Afraid Anything Blank Blank Canvas Broken Canvas Dares Face Front How Idiotic Idiots Imbecile Just Know Know How Like Many Much Once Painter Painters Passionate Real Says See Slap Some Spell Stare Staring Themselves Thing Turn Which

Quote Author

Vincent Van Gogh
Dutch - Painter
March 30, 1853 - July 29, 1890

Many painters are afraid of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the truly passionate painter who dares-and who has once broken the spell of 'you can't.'

Vincent Van Gogh

Just dash something down if you see a blank canvas staring at you with a certain imbecility. You do not know how paralyzing it is, that staring of a blank canvas which says to the painter: you don't know anything.

Vincent Van Gogh

The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerises some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves.

Vincent Van Gogh

Just slap something on it when you see a blank canvas staring at you with a sort of imbecility.

Vincent Van Gogh

I just get excited... like a painter with a blank canvas.

Kenny Florian

You wind up creating from silence, like painting a picture on a blank canvas that could bring tears to somebody's eyes. As songwriters, our blank canvas is silence. Then we write a song from an idea that can change somebody's life. Songwriting is the closest thing to magic that we could ever experience. That's why I love songwriting.

Rodney Atkins

... a canvas that I have covered is worth more than a blank canvas. My pretensions go no further; that is my right to paint, my reason for painting.

Irving Stone

My face is almost like a canvas - a blank canvas in the sense that the hair on my face is very, very fine and my skin is incredibly fair and my hair is quite dark, and that's very unusual.

Andrea Riseborough

It's a marvellous life, a gregarious life that we've had. We're very lucky in that way. Unlike writers or painters, we don't sit down in front of a blank canvas and say, 'How do I start? Where do I start?'

Albert Finney

It's so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas.

Paul Cezanne

White. A blank page or canvas. So many possibilities.

Stephen Sondheim

By itself, tofu is like wet foam rubber, but you'd no more eat it by itself and expect fine dining than you would stare at a blank canvas and expect to see fine art.

Victoria Moran

I don't go into the studio with the idea of 'saying' something. What I do is face the blank canvas and put a few arbitrary marks on it that start me on some sort of dialogue.