Robert Genn Quotes & Sayings

Passion is the force that springs an artist from the needling cushion of depression. — Robert Genn

According to Mednick, after sleep, people are 33 percent more likely to be creative. — Robert Genn

Many of us knuckle-dragging brush-painters think that 'behind the times' is part of our job description. Why deny ourselves the authentic journey of a time-honoured form? — Robert Genn

In acrylic, happiness comes a bit faster. — Robert Genn

Regarding ego force, we don't always like people who have it. If you have it, and need to be liked, you ought to consider letting most of it come out the end of your brush. — Robert Genn

Curiosity allows your unique "owned processes" to draw you toward creative conclusions. — Robert Genn

Factual titling satisfies and is pure by its lack of bamboozlement. — Robert Genn

The studio is an extension of the sandbox and the kindergarten playroom. It has a dynamic unlike any office or factory. It's a room at the service of a dreamer on her way to becoming a master. — Robert Genn

One of the ways to learn is to know when you're making failures. — Robert Genn

Quality is always in style. — Robert Genn

It's better to have a small diamond than a large piece of glass. — Robert Genn

Artists should be aware that petty stroking could be the source of arrested productivity. An artist's job includes the avoidance of premature closure by the begged or gratuitous approval of others. — Robert Genn

I have always found it a testament to the importance of painting that the first thing many people do when their home is on fire is to grab their paintings and then run out. — Robert Genn

Previously unseen boo-boos come at you like tattoos on a teenage girl. — Robert Genn

For all of us, self-briefing before going out or starting a project sharpens artistic wit. — Robert Genn

I do know, for most of us, the very best of times are when you're in your own space sweating, trying to squeeze quality out of imperfect capabilities. — Robert Genn

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana has the ability to take you from placidity to power in one sonic breath. It is music of dignity and strength, with primitive, energetic passages, evoking absolute beauty from the simplest of phrases. It brings up something that has everything to do with significance - squeezing joy and motif that you just can't drop - it stays with you. — Robert Genn

A drawing a day keeps the cobwebs away. — Robert Genn

Don't assume there is only one way. Don't assume that mistakes are a bad thing. Don't think for one minute that everyone agrees with what 'good' is. — Robert Genn

I simply like the monumentality of the subjects - the opportunity for metaphor and the varied light that comes with high altitudes. — Robert Genn

A simple equation for the production of successful art work is lots of reference material plus lots of art supplies equals lots of painting happiness. — Robert Genn

The brilliance of art as a collectible is that it has a way of reaching out on an emotional level. It touches on mystery, even spirituality. — Robert Genn

Contrary to popular belief, all evolving artists are in a full time battle with mediocrity. — Robert Genn

Mountains in all their moods are symbols of something greater, something worth aspiring to. Mountains are powerful, dangerous, beautiful, noble and mysterious. Mountains get respect. — Robert Genn

Landscape painting tends to fall under more academic controls. I must say I often like working within these controls. It gives me the feeling that I'm taking part in a noble tradition. — Robert Genn

So who are we going to blame for our disappointments and our failures? — Robert Genn

Visual tonics such as 'timed creativity' need to be introduced to refresh and refurbish the muse. — Robert Genn

We are trying to evoke and reinforce meanings from the spaces we cover and the times we're given. Short or long this becomes our purpose. What we artists do is important stuff. — Robert Genn

Starving artist' is acceptable at age 20, suspect at age 40, and problematical at age 60. — Robert Genn

I always thought signing was an artist's honour and guarantee of authenticity. — Robert Genn

Art is a path on which we honour our world. Art may not be the only path, but it is a good path, even though at times a difficult one. As bearers of this honour, we artists do not need to simply render our world as we see it but as we might ourselves redesign it. As artists, one of our privileges is to invent. — Robert Genn

Never forget that the nurturing and preservation of your own muse is job one. Lose it and you may be losing a great deal. — Robert Genn

Which is better
feeling good or getting good? — Robert Genn

Drawing is still the bottom line. — Robert Genn

Know that to begin is often better than to think. — Robert Genn

Pushing yourself to extremes blows out the cobwebs of trusted habit. It shakes up what you know to be reliably safe and substitutes the miracle of insecurity. — Robert Genn

Flat, uninteresting parts of paintings are, in fact, a ruse to get the viewer to see what needs to be seen. — Robert Genn

The thing about art is that life is in no danger of being meaningless, — Robert Genn

The overly-verbal artist is led by his understanding of things
rather than by direct observation of things as they are. — Robert Genn

It's my wish that I can help creative people think of new ways to be creative - to get more joy and understanding from their own unique processes. — Robert Genn

It is necessary to put yourself out for rejection, and accept that you will be rejected. — Robert Genn

The painting world is awash with people who cannot paint. This is a condition that would not be tolerated in other professions such as Dentistry, Medicine, or among members of the Airline Pilot's Association. — Robert Genn

Take your brush here and there like a bee in an alpine meadow. In other words, don't laboriously work on or try to finish off one particular part. Paint promiscuously. — Robert Genn

Art is a course in personal development that has no reliable diploma and no known end. The pursuit of art instructs in beauty as well as ugliness, fantasy as well as common sense. Art levels souls and baffles brains. Art softens pain because it is pain. Art gives joy because it is joy. — Robert Genn

When you sit down to paint or draw, you form yourself into a posture of praise — Robert Genn

While knowledge of tools and the love of motif may be in your backpack, and all mountains may be measured by their previous heroes, art must exist for you in a place beyond the judgment of others. — Robert Genn

Art, because it's so easy to do, and yet so difficult to do well, encourages humility in the human soul. — Robert Genn

The short-goal habit is key to larger success and is at the root of human greatness. Life is think and do, think and do, think and do. Small steps can be greater than great leaps. — Robert Genn

Silent guns have virtue. — Robert Genn

When you serve your passions, proficiency gradually takes over and becomes habitual. — Robert Genn

Dogs are angels sent from heaven in order to help us to be better people. — Robert Genn

Once as I sat painting, I became aware of a man's face hovering near me, moving closer and closer to the panel I was working on. When he spoke he said, 'That is a fantastic brush! — Robert Genn

While Mojo suggests any art that invokes supernatural powers, for us creators Mojovation means finding magic in what we do. — Robert Genn

Do something others will have the desire to plagiarize but will find difficult to do. — Robert Genn

I've come to realize that companionship and mild competition can help build quality and lay the ground for excellence. — Robert Genn

Artists ... do not need the applause or condemnation of the critics, the ideas of other artists, or the demands of the collectors. — Robert Genn

Do not be frivolous with the gift of a day. Right now it's all you have. Yesterday is history. — Robert Genn

Risk in art is experimentation. There is no sorrow in self-driven experimentation. — Robert Genn

I suppose what you're doing as a painter is making a record of your trip through life. I can't think of any job that is quite as satisfactory as doing a painting. — Robert Genn

When shucked and released from its edges, the windowless subject stands alone as its own thing. — Robert Genn

The job of art is to turn time into things. — Robert Genn

When I'm in the studio I often hunger for the road. And when away I long for the efficiency of the studio. — Robert Genn

More than any other colour, red is loaded for action. — Robert Genn

While this may seem peculiar, the combo of work and distraction leads to levels of innovation not often generated by structured, focused thinking alone. — Robert Genn

Canned reference is practically always loaded with problems. Photos, for example, contrive to kill imagination and stifle the natural development of creative patterns. While "ready-mades" do show up from time to time, they are rare. Art need not be what is seen-but what is to be seen. "Nature," said James McNeill Whistler, "is usually wrong." — Robert Genn

Art is a Great Goddess of infinite intrigue and illusion, and even a lifetime of worship may not find her fickle soul. — Robert Genn

There is no progress without product. — Robert Genn

We artists allow others to see through our windows. — Robert Genn

Seems those with money who don't worry about money have big walls. — Robert Genn

In life and art it's better to be an enthusiastic amateur than a jaded professional. — Robert Genn

This evening, while signing my name on a painting, I was thinking I might stop signing my cheques. — Robert Genn

Properly channeled, common feelings of inadequacy lead to powers of accomplishment. — Robert Genn

There is a wonderful feeling when you walk into your own exhibition. You see the work as a true extension of yourself. Win or lose, your interests have led you to an accumulation of your personal expression, signed lower right,
mounted to best advantage. — Robert Genn

The only bad studio is the unused one. — Robert Genn

With cropping, a new integrity appears and winning abstractions flutter up like butterflies. You can afford to be critical, discriminating, innocent, open-minded, charmed, beguiled or bamboozled. — Robert Genn

Dealer goodwill and friendship are keys to thrival. — Robert Genn

The problem with University degrees, particularly the more spectacular ones, is that people who possess them can fall into the trap of thinking people who don't have them don't know anything. — Robert Genn

Our human landscape is overburdened with competitions and contests. Art need not be a contest. Art is a personal quest for quality. Quality is the forerunner of acceptance. Character is the forerunner of quality. Be your own discriminating connoisseur. — Robert Genn

No one would have the courage to walk up to a writer and ask to look at the last few pages of his manuscript, but they feel perfectly comfortable staring over an artist's shoulder while he is trying to paint. — Robert Genn

We know the human mind is programmed to glaze over when bored. Conversely, the mind is more alert in the presence of novelty. Our muse needs to stay seductive to keep our hands doing the right things. — Robert Genn

One compositional element suggests and asks for another. This is what makes the activity interesting. — Robert Genn

As we grow older, we realize just how limiting were our earlier conceptions. Art is something else. Art is fluid, transmutable, open-ended, never complete, and never perfect. Art is an event. — Robert Genn

We are not born focusing. It's an acquired skill that requires initial effort and constant upgrading. — Robert Genn

Words are small straitjackets when put around creative flourishes and maneuverings. — Robert Genn

Art thrives on a difference of opinion. My treasure is your junk, sort of thing. Life would be dull if we all agreed. — Robert Genn

A curiosity prompt heightens the senses and hones compositional ability ... — Robert Genn

Accepting the gift may take the accumulated wisdom of some trodden miles, but it also opens the welcome windows of joy. — Robert Genn

An abstract title suggests another value to the subject, perhaps an artistic quality that sets the viewers' sensitivities into action. — Robert Genn

Abstract understanding doesn't mean arbitrary sloshing and messing. Abstract art is controlled visual magic based on laws and methodology. Abstraction generally involves implication, suggestion and mystery rather that obvious description. Like a good poem, a good abstraction attacks your feelings before your understanding. Abstraction within realism adds zest and excitement to otherwise dull subject matter. Abstract understanding takes time and patience. — Robert Genn

Waiting for inspiration is for amateurs; professionals get to work. — Robert Genn

People suspend judgment in the presence of mystery. — Robert Genn

I required a destination that was worthy of many visits. — Robert Genn

The centipede has rhythm and flow in its hundred legs precisely because it does not have to think about it. Consider this the next time you move the instruments of your art. — Robert Genn

Prices need to be fair, appropriate and consistent. — Robert Genn

The area between the nose and the chin, the subject of kissing and the vehicle for speech, is perhaps even more known and set upon than the eyes. The mouth is also riddled with a complex interweaving of folds, curves, flats and lost-and-found edges. These nuances are needed by a perceptive person who might try to understand human nature. — Robert Genn

With materialization in play you have magic in your fingers and you become the wizard. — Robert Genn

Novelty is vital to the stimulation of life ... New neural paths are sparked by caving in to notions. — Robert Genn

Flowers are an education in a vase. — Robert Genn

Now familiar with my own particular voice and accent, my Dragon app prints out exactly what I speak into my iPad. Twenty years ago this miracle would be unthinkable. — Robert Genn

Paintings, like tombstones, will last a good five hundred years, well into twenty or thirty generations. — Robert Genn