Robert Henri Quotes

My drawings are the result of my sculpture.

For me, drawing is everything, because it informs everything. It even informs my poetry. It's the way I begin everything.

Line is the most powerful device of drawing.

Drawing is a means of obtaining and communicating knowledge

Drawing is putting a line around an idea.

My paintings cannot be a negation of what has always been and always will be necessary - drawing and search for values.

I believe that the medium of photography prevails entirely as an act of faith in the souls of those who love and practice it. And so every photograph becomes another subtle variation on the theme of the medium itself.

I know I draw without taking my pen off the page. I just keep going, and that my drawings I think of them as scribbles. I don't think they mean anything to anybody except to me, and then at the end of the day, the end of the project, they wheel out these little drawings and they're damn close to what the finished building is and it's the drawing.

Drawing is the first language of the human being before writing. It's a transcription of how the human being sees reality, not reality itself.

I have told myself a hundred times that painting - that is, the material thing called a painting - is no more than a pretext, the bridge between the mind of the painter and the mind of the spectator.

It is through observation and perception of atmosphere that he [the artist] can register the feeling that he wishes his painting to give out.

Drawing is the root of everything, and the time spent on that is actually all profit.

If drawing belongs to the world of spirit and color to that of the senses, you must draw first to cultivate the spirit.

Drawing is the root of everything.

I have always attempted to create images that deliver the maximum amount of information about the subject.

Personally, I'm not very keen on the visualization of absolutely everything.

The art of drawing is the art of omission.

Drawing is the cornerstone of the graphic, plastic arts. Drawing is the coordination of line, tone, and color symbols into formations that express the artist's thought.

Usually I draw in relation to my painting, what I am working on at the time. On a lucky day a surprising balance of forms and spaces will appear... making itself, the image taking hold. This in turn moves me toward painting - anxious to get to the same place, with the actuality of paint and light.

The purpose of visualization is insight, not pictures

The essence of drawing is the line exploring space.

It is not I that am drawing, it is this thing at the end of my hand.

Usually I begin things through a drawing, so a lot of things are worked out in the drawing. But even then, I still allow for and want to make changes. I kind of do the drawing with the painting in mind, but it's very hard to guess at a size or a color and the colors around it and what it will really look like. It's only a guess at the beginning, and then I try to refine it.

If you can talk about it, why paint it?

I can look at my early work and see what a pained struggle it was to draw what I was drawing. I was trying so hard to get this specific look that was in my head, and always falling short.