Henri Matisse Quotes

Art is the result of a creative impulse derived out of a consciousness of life.

That should be something that an artist can respond to as well in terms of a painting.

The creative process, so far as we are able to follow it at all, consists in the unconscious activation of an archetypal image and elaborating and shaping the image into the finished work. By giving it shape, the artist translates it into the language of the present and so makes it possible for us to find our way back to the deepest springs of life.

do what only a true artist can do ... pounce upon the forgotten butterfly of revelation

A director is a man, therefore he has ideas; he is also an artist, therefore he has imagination. Whether they are good or bad, it seems to me that I have an abundance of stories to tell. And the things I see, the things that happen to me, continually renew the supply.

The artist is the medium between his fantasies and the rest of the world.

As an artist, you've got to see the mess. That's what we do. We get a human being, and it's like putting together a puzzle. And the puzzle has got to be a mixture, a multifaceted mixture of human emotions, and not all of it is going to be pretty.

In the domain of art there is no light without heat.

All the things an artist must be: poet, explorer of nature, philosopher!

An artist’s job is to captivate… if we stumble into truth, we got lucky.

Picasso says that an artists paints not to ask a question but because he has found something and he wants to share—he cannot help it—what he has found.

The artist's job? To be a miracle worker: make the blind see, the dull feel, the dead to live.

Artists should never look at pictures, but should stutter in a language of their own.

Every single work of art is the fulfillment of a prophecy; for every work of art is the conversion of an idea into an image.

Artists are modest. They know they're not doing the work; they're just taking dictation.

When the muse hits me, or the mood, or whatever it is, I get my guitar out and I empty it out. I just start going through things to see what's going to happen.

The masterpiece should appear as the flower to the painter - perfect in its bud as in its bloom - with no reason to explain its presence - no mission to fulfill - a joy to the artist, a delusion to the philanthropist - a puzzle to the botanist - an accident of sentiment and alliteration to the literary man.

Being an artist is celebrating life.

What do artists do? Artists give people something they didn't know they were missing: a dance, a piece of music, a painting, a piece of sculpture. Catering to that need is the best business strategy.

The creative process obtains in all creative acts. So if I'm painting suddenly I'll see something that I didn't see before.

I'm a sponge, the more I absorb, the more I am able to articulate my vision, as artists do, like Picasso. I'm an artist in that light. I went from being an artist to an artiste.

Every artist is a cannibal/every poet is a thief/all kill for inspiration/and then sing about the grief.

The interesting thing about this is I don't know what my vision [ in Salome the play and Salomaybe] is yet about. I'm sensing something and I'm going along with it. It reminds me of a painting, the way Jackson Pollack painted - Jackson Pollack, the great, great artist.

Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes.

The artist secretes nostalgia around life.