20 ARTISTS’ QUOTES ON NATURE
1.
“I have gone into roses and have over a thousand planted. There is nothing like making pictures with real things.”
— Mary Cassatt
2.
“I, too, find the flower beautiful in its outward appearance. But a deeper beauty lies concealed within.”
— Piet Mondrian
3.
“A love of nature is a consolation against failure.”
— Berthe Morisot
4.
“Wherever I go I need a period of incubation so that I may learn the essence of nature, which never wishes to be understood or yield herself.”
— Paul Gauguin
5.
“I made my first trip west of the Hudson and it was a revelation. The naked musculature of the Rockies was overpowering and my painting responded.”
— Elaine De Kooning
6.
“The great mystery which stands behind all events and things can be felt when we stand in a landscape and flowers speak to us directly.”
— Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
7.
“To believe in nature is enough.”
— Wols (Alfred Schulze-Battmann)
8.
“It takes a certain maturity of mind to accept that nature works as steadily in rust as in rose petals.”
— Esther Warner Dendel
9.
“If we look at the Japanese artist, we see a man who is undoubtedly wise. What does he spend his time doing? Studying a single blade of grass.”
— Vincent van Gogh
10.
“To tell the truth, I could work with one flower forever.”
— Nell Blaine
11.
“A fresh wind from the west grazes me, carrying the odor of thyme and the sound of train whistles, playing with my moist hair. Nature does love me! She consoles me and makes promises to me.”
— Paul Klee
12.
“The observation of nature is part of an artist’s life.”
— Henry Moore
13.
“Just as I begin to mourn the passing of the azaleas, out comes the mountain laurel. It is so breathtaking, so short-lived, that the enjoyment of it is almost pain.”
— Margaret Bourke-White
14.
“It seemed to me as though the flower I was painting was the only thing in the world. And when the bloom came out, I felt as though a skyscraper had gone up overnight.”
— Georgia O’Keeffe
15.
“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.”
— Pablo Picasso
16.
“There’s a mystery in fallen leaves. I believe most artists are concerned with this mystery.”
— Mark Tobey
17.
“Almost all the horse sculptures I had ever seen had to do with giant war horses, invariably stallions, carrying generals off to kill people. Instead, I wanted to make a sculpture of a mare expecting a baby.”
— Deborah Butterfield
18.
“I refer you to Nature early, that you may receive your first impressions of beauty and sublimity unmingled with the superstitions of Art.”
— Thomas Cole
19.
“With almost every breath I take I get a new sense of the linden tree, of ripened wheat, of hay, of mignonette. If I can paint three good pictures then I shall go gladly, with flowers in my hair.”
— Paula Modersohn-Becker
20.
“I’d wanted to paint the desert but I didn’t know how. So I brought home bleached bones as my symbol of the desert. To me they are as beautiful as anything I know.”
— Georgia O’Keeffe
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