John French Sloan Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 30 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by John French Sloan.
Famous Quotes By John French Sloan
Be sensitive to the qualities inherent in the medium. Paint honestly and avoid tricks. — John French Sloan
When you draw a crowd of people in a street or room or landscape, decide whether you want to say that the people dominate the place or that the place is more important than the people. — John French Sloan
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. — John French Sloan
The subject may be of first importance to the artist when he starts a picture, but it should be of least importance in the finished product. The subject is of no aesthetic significance. — John French Sloan
Artists are the only people in the world who really live. The others have to hope for heaven. — John French Sloan
A piece of drapery is like a necktie, hot stuff to paint, and one of the easiest things for a painter to kid himself into thinking he can do. Don't be fooled by the color. Go after the shape and character. Hew the forms together with colored tones. — John French Sloan
The purpose of subject matter is to veil technique. The great artist uses the cloak of resemblance to hide the means. — John French Sloan
You can be a giant among artists without ever attaining any great skill. Facility is a dangerous thing. When there is too much technical ease the brain stops criticizing. Don't let the hand fall into a smart way of putting the mind to sleep. — John French Sloan
Originality is a quality that cannot be imitated. The technique of the language, on the other hand, is something that belongs to all who can understand it. — John French Sloan
Drawing and composition are the same thing. — John French Sloan
Nature is what you see plus what you think about it. — John French Sloan
When painting a landscape it is desirable to walk through the clumps and around the bushes, around the trees, the houses and the rocks. Familiarizing yourself in this way with the subject, you will get a better concept of the thing and not a visual and false snapshot. — John French Sloan
The great black and white draftsman, the sculptor, and the blind man know that form and color are separate. The form itself is what the blind man knows ... Color is surface skin that fits over the form. — John French Sloan
Consistency is the quality of a stagnant mind. — John French Sloan
Art is the response of the living to life. It is therefore the record left behind by civilization. — John French Sloan
Draw places you have seen from memory. I used to paint things I had glimpsed through windows while riding in the elevated train. — John French Sloan
There is a better chance of getting an exciting painting from a laboured study with texture than from a fine drawing without it. — John French Sloan
Find your own technique. — John French Sloan
Study the great brush drawings of the Chinese and Japanese ... When we try to imitate their conventions for perspective, form and texture we lose the content, because those artists were part of an ancient tradition. Our tradition changes rapidly, our schools of thought come to fruition quickly and decay again. We see differently. — John French Sloan
Don't think of sea as color. Make it a solid that can support a boat. Think of 'wetness' as color-texture. — John French Sloan
Every good picture leaves the painter eager to start again, unsatisfied, inspired by the rich mine in which he is working, hoping for more energy, more vitality, more time - condemned to painting for life. — John French Sloan
Always think of drawing, getting the forms realized, emphasizing the design. — John French Sloan
Since we have to speak well of the dead, let's knock them while they're alive. — John French Sloan
Color is like music. The palette is an instrument that can be orchestrated to build form. — John French Sloan
In the hands of a master, light and shade is one of the great qualities of art. — John French Sloan
Painting is drawing, with the additional means of color. — John French Sloan
The emphasis on original, individual work in the past years has done a great deal to produce a crop of eccentric fakes and has carried art away from the stream of tradition. Tradition is our heritage of knowledge and experience. We can't get along without it. — John French Sloan
Be sensitive to your mistakes. Put it on the wall for a couple of weeks. It may be that you can learn more from the study of your own work than from others. — John French Sloan
Don't be stingy with your paint, it isn't worth it. — John French Sloan
The artist seeks to record his awareness of order in life. — John French Sloan