John Howe Quotes

The mindset that I have on every project I take on is, 'How do I make this interesting enough for me to want to stop and look at it?' So in that regard, what I do behind the camera, whether it's still or motion picture, is the same.

For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those moments' sake.

My intention was to create something that people loved to look at and they could find inspiration from, and that was it.

I'm a visual artist myself and always have been so it's very natural for me to be very concerned with presentation, whether it's artwork or onstage.

What can make your work interesting is as much who you are, as how you draw.

In a sense, the first (if not necessarily the prime) function of a novelist, of ANY artist, is to entertain. If the poem, painting, play or novel does not immediately engage one's surface interest then it has failed. Whatever else it may or may not be, art is also entertainment. Bad art fails to entertain. Good art does something in addition.

I envisioned all these people who had been admired for having been freaks in their own time, and I saw myself in line with them.

I believe that the quintessential task of every painter in any time has been to concentrate on the essential.

It might be bold to put your work into the world unadorned, but it's probably ineffective.

For me, a picture should be like sparks. It must dazzle like the beauty of a woman or a poem. It must have radiance; it must be like those stones which Pyrenean shepherds use to light their pipes.

I’ve always assumed that the abstract qualities of [my] photographs are obvious. For instance, I can turn them upside down and they’re still interesting to me as pictures. If you turn a picture that’s not well organized upside down, it won’t work.

Expression, sentiment, truth to nature, are essential: but all those are not enough. I never care to look at a picture again, if it be ill composed; and if well composed I can hardly leave off looking at it.

Is it the obligation of great art to be continually interesting? I think not.

I always wanted to play music, but my family was more interested in handing me paints and markers. Art was always my favorite subject in school, and I can remember staying up all night drawing as a small child. My expression via art was extremely strong as I grew and hasn't stopped.

The purpose of painting is to decorate the walls. Therefore it has to be as rich as possible

Drawing takes time. A line has time in it

The most beautiful colors laid on at random, give less pleasure than a black-and-white drawing.

The pictures which do not represent an intense interest cannot expect to create an intense interest.

The forehead of every work must shine from afar.

I find drawing a useful outlet for ideas for which there is not time enough to realize as sculpture... And I sometimes draw just for its own enjoyment.

My drawings are another kind of music for me...they relax me and I think they all connect somehow.

What interests me the most is expressing what's in nature, in the visible world, that is.

Harmony of colouring is destructive of art? it is like the smile of a fool.

Art has to offer something other than stylized despair.

Drawing is of the Spirit and color of the Senses.