David Cobley Quotes & Sayings

All of us take an interest, to a greater or lesser extent, in what people around us look like, what they are doing, and why they are doing it. — David Cobley

Painting someone's portrait is, of course, an impossible task. What an absurd idea to try and distil a human being, the most complex organism on the planet, into flicks, washes, and blobs of paint on a two-dimensional surface. — David Cobley

People fascinate me. Consciously or unconsciously, I have been studying their behavior all my life. — David Cobley

As a boy, I used to look at reproductions of Rembrandt's portraits ... the people in his paintings were so real I felt I knew them ... It is his empathy for the sitter, combined with his enjoyment and dexerity in handling paint that captured my imagination then, and is what I am striving for still. — David Cobley

Sometimes, in a portrait, I go straight in with paint onto canvas ... Other than riding my bike up and down the hills around here, it is the most dangerous thing I do ... like tightrope-walking without a safety net! — David Cobley