Robert Henri Quotes - Page 5

Keep a bad drawing until by study you have found out why it is bad.

You form a society: that limits you. Adopt a name, and you've limited yourself again; draw up a constitution and bylaws and you've made a groove, a rut, that hampers your growth. You think you can fix your course and move straight along it. But sometimes the important thing is to strike out sidewise.

All the past up to a moment ago is your legacy. You have a right to it.

Be a warhorse for work and enjoy even the struggle against defeat.

The more simply you see, the more simply you will render. People see too much, scatteringly.

Your style is the way you talk in paint.

Strokes carry a message whether you will it or not. The stroke is just like the artist at the time he makes it. All the certainties, all the uncertainties, all the bigness of his spirit and the littlenesses are in it.

I have heard it very often said that an artist does not need intelligence, that his is the province of the soul

Beauty is an intangible thing; can not be fixed on the surface, and the wear and tear of old age on the body cannot defeat it. Nor will a "pretty" face make it, for "pretty" faces are often dull and empty, and beauty is never dull and it fills all spaces.

There has never been a painting that was more beautiful than nature. The model does not unfold herself to you, you must rise to her. She should be the inspiration for your painting. No man has ever over-appreciated a human being.

The most vital things in the look of a landscape endure only for a moment. Work should be done from memory; memory of that vital moment.

The reason for the survival of the award system is purely commercial.

Self-acquainta nce is a rare condition.

The man who has honesty, integrity, the love of inquiry, the desire to see beyond, is ready to appreciate good art.

Your only hope of satisfying others is in satisfying yourself. I speak of a great satisfaction, not a commercial satisfaction.

In great art there is no beginning and end in point of time. All time is comprehended.

The sketch hunter moves through life as he finds it, not passing negligently the things he loves, but stopping to know them, and to note them down in the shorthand of his sketchbook.

Through art, mysterious bonds of understanding and of knowledge are established among men. They are the bonds of a great Brotherhood. Those who are of the Brotherhood know each other, and time and space cannot separate them.

The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish, and spirits must flow. There must be courage. There are no easy ruts to get into which lead to happiness.

To paint is to know how to put nothing on canvas, and have it look like something when you stand back.

Painting should never look as if it were done with difficulty, however difficult it may actually have been.

The artist should have a powerful will. He should be powerfully possessed by one idea

In a tree there is a spirit of life, a spirit of growth and a spirit of holding its head up.

A GREAT PAINTER will know a great deal about how he did it, but still he will say, “How did I do it?

Lines are results, do not draw them for themselves.