Martine Syms Quotes

I tend to write and record things quite quickly. You can tamper with things for years, and it's artistic laziness sometimes.

So many of my paintings, people would be like, 'What more do you have to do?' But the smallest little things make all of the difference.

Art is never finished. It is only abandoned.

What I've learned from sketch is you can get it as perfect as you want, and it's never going to be perfect.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

I'm very interested to see how this new painting will go - I know I want it big and stark, and as I said, I follow the muse, and that's when it always works perfectly for me.

When I'm painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It's only after a get acquainted period that I see what I've been about. I've no fears about making changes for the painting has a life of its own.

Artwork is not like a commercial business; there is no such thing as a schedule for art. You can't hurry art.

Part of creating is understanding that there is always more to do; nothing is ever completely finished.

Once I make a picture, I never look at it again.

I love producing! It's so much fun to start with a blank canvas and create the picture you want to create and see it all come together.

Books and movies are never finished, only surrendered.

I just create, that's what I do.

I never see songs as permanent. I'm always in a state of revising everything.

That's the buzz for me, the creative process. An idea is never as good as when it's in your head. And then it's just how little you ruin it.

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

I don't make judgments about my own work, and I don't analyze it; I just let it happen. That applies to everything I've done.

I doubt Picasso ever painted a picture in an hour, he took his time, looked at every detail and made sure it was perfect.

Even if you're not releasing songs, the act of creativity is important. That's the part I love, when you're in the moment. The rest of it I'm not particularly interested in at all.

You just gotta record stuff and move on and make new material. Painters don't wait until they're in some specific gallery before they move on to the next painting.

How many of you are creative? I don't know, but for me, when you make a bunch of things over time and then you keep them... you forget. I look through my sketchbooks and I'm an audience for myself.

I'm not going to be like, "I gotta get this idea out of my head." It's like, "OK, here's a clean slate, and I've got all these paints, and all these brushes, and this is what I'm going to do with it." It reveals itself, and you take a step back and say, "What's happening here? Where are we going? What does this mean? Do I need to break it open? Does it need to just be what it is? Should it end now?"

An artist is an explorer. He has to begin by self-discovery and by observation of his own procedure. After that he must not feel under any constraint.

I'm constantly striving to break through to something new. You try to maintain a neutral approach to your work, and not be too hard on yourself.

If I was an artist, and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art.