The essential thing is to spring forth, to express the bolt of lightning one senses upon contact with a thing. The function of the artist is not to translate an observation but to express the shock of the object on his nature; the shock, with the original reaction.
I wouldn’t mind turning into a vermilion goldfish.
An artist is an explorer.
Above all, an artist must never be too easily satisfied with what he has done...
What interests me most is neither still life nor landscape: it is the human figure.
It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color – not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression.
Creation begins with vision.
With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.
Jazz is rhythm and meaning.
An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success, etc.
Work cures everything.
A distinction is made between artists who work directly from nature and those who work purely from imagination. Neither if these methods should be preferred to the exclusion of the other. Often both are used in turn by the same man...
You want to paint? First of all you must cut off your tongue because your decision takes away from you the right to express yourself with anything but your brush.
In love, the one who runs away is the winner.
I’m growing old, I delight in the past.
There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.
In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking on a tightrope.
I am unable to make any distinction between the feeling I get from life and the way I translate that feeling into painting.
I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it.
Cutting into color reminds me of the sculptor’s direct carving.