Status Updates From Creative Authenticity: 16 P...

“Draw the main shapes, see the way your eye is being moved around the picture and what devices the artist uses to do that. Notice how there are primary and secondary lines of motion around the composition and how they keep you inside the picture plane and make sure you're not pulled outside of it.”

“The eye, in one sense, is a very simple instrument. It responds to contrast. The stronger the contrast, the more it responds.“

“We may be separated from a flow within our spirit for weeks. We continue to paint because there is no knowing at what precise moment it will return. And when it does we need our faculties alert and our skills honed. Then the poetry is everywhere.”

“Here lies the myth of the suffering artist. It isn't the art making when it goes well that has any suffering in it. It's the loss that causes the suffering.“

“Vuillard, in the same vein, said, "There is a species of emotion particular to painting. There is an effect that results from a certain arrangement of colors, of lights, of shadows, etc. It is this that one calls the music of painting."

“The famous art historian Walter Pater said, "All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music. For while in other kinds of art it is possible to distinguish the matter from the form [painted surface from subject matter] and the understanding can always make this distinction, yet it is the constant effort of art to obliterate it."

“The subject matter, a painting of Christ, for example, is not what gives a painting its spiritual substance. How deeply the artist felt, and how deeply we, as viewers, respond in kind, is what gives the painting its power and authenticity.“

“A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

“Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and endless plans: That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.“

“The trick is to recognize what is going on and to begin to strip away everything that feels false. This is why art can be such a vehicle for personal and spiritual growth. Spiritual growth involves a rigorous stripping away of falseness and blindness.”

“Andrew Wyath: One’s art goes only as far and as deep as one’s love goes”

“It's what makes the inevitable harsh judgment of our work… so counterproductive, particularly when we compare our struggles in the studio to another artist's well-edited, curated gallery exhibition... We each have certain fascinations … they've wrestled with and perfected it. But it's not our area. Ironically, our own obsessions are so close to us we probably can't see them. We're blind to our own magic.“

“I realized from him that if you feel something yourself, then it's true... You can express your idea if you want and be shot down for a hundred and one reasons, but if you feel it, and until you decide to change that feeling, it's true for you. … I discovered from this teacher the importance of having opinions and not accepting popular conventions.”

“Daily our creative direction is rather a quiet affair. We arrive at indications of a direction we might take, like dis- covering a broken twig or two rocks left by a previous scout to suggest one path over another. And we need to listen and have confidence in our own intuition about which path we should take.”

“Students are often concerned about whether they're talented enough, but that is usually the least of anyone's worries. Finding a few good ideas that have a personal resonance, trusting them, working them, mining them -- that's the trick. Then consistently taking steps in the direction that holds us, and trusting those steps, will build momentum. That momentum will build a career.