Sara Genn Quotes & Sayings

Vibrancy is only as effective as the mastering of restraint. — Sara Genn

In the art game we do our own cooking. — Sara Genn

Artists and their subjects are the star-crossed lovers of the world. They recognize each other on impact. — Sara Genn

Stretch your goals ... In other words, think big and think far off. — Sara Genn

New surroundings have a way of returning attention to areas that may have become rote. — Sara Genn

Having a favourite colour is like having a favourite lung. — Sara Genn

These days, if you happen to be a poet you have to sing your words to get your ideas out. — Sara Genn

Study the processes and methods of those who are better at it than you ... there's someone who knows something you don't, who has honed a skill more than you have. Rival your rival. — Sara Genn

Value choices are intuitive ... It's fun to see how much you can get without leaning on contrast. — Sara Genn

You need to paint with enough assurance and confidence to know you can do whatever you like. — Sara Genn

Art is sometimes likened to a mirror ... an expression of universal human truth, executed with a degree of skill. — Sara Genn

Learning a new thing is a shortcut to joy and informs your area of mastery. — Sara Genn

Art begins when an observer's sensibilities engage with the understatements of a calculating craftsman. — Sara Genn

I'll put into words my experience as it is unfolding now in my life ... in such a way that I might find comfort in knowing that someone else has the same thoughts and experiences. — Sara Genn

Pay no attention to the less courageous. — Sara Genn

Scientists tracking mirror neurons noticed that a monkey will get excited not just when holding a banana, but also when seeing someone else holding a banana. — Sara Genn

Remember the importance of phrases ... a piece of something, an entry, a moment, a mark. This adjusts the pressure of the giant task of creating the perfect masterwork. — Sara Genn

Joy is my energy and energy is my powerhouse. — Sara Genn

Tear-stained flops are necessary. They're the gift you give yourself when you're willing to fly. — Sara Genn

Painters tend to ignore the challenges and thrills that sculptors enjoy daily - volume ... like the perfect, imperfect voluminous oval of the egg. — Sara Genn

Refreshing failures roll off the travel easel like ants from a picnic blanket. — Sara Genn

Going beyond one's backyard grants one perspective. — Sara Genn

Be artistic, choose taste, set an example. — Sara Genn

To return to awareness is to notice this new world with baby-eyes, and to appreciate her strangeness. — Sara Genn

Making strides in areas unencumbered by hard-won expectation feels effervescent. By switching into child-mode, shuffling the cortex, we remember our innocence, when we knew less. These are the essentials of continued aesthetic discovery. — Sara Genn

You are solely responsible for doing the work required to become better. — Sara Genn

As artists, we bear the charge of signalling, guiding, communicating and inspiriting change. — Sara Genn

Art is a perfectly complete cause. — Sara Genn

Why all these years have I been agreeably turning down the stereo every time the phone rings? — Sara Genn

Read in order to write, but paint in order to paint. — Sara Genn

In modern times we are often encouraged to protect our ego-force and individuality by securing a private world in which to develop our unique artistic voice. Many artists find themselves solo-paddling along a private and unchallenging river ... Could rivalry be a productive system? — Sara Genn

Artists live in an imperfect world where affairs of the heart must sometimes be compromised with business. — Sara Genn

Some artists approach their 'why?' intuitively, and work toward giving it a voice through their technical skill. Others begin as technicians, and develop, or discover, their 'why?' as they become stronger communicators. — Sara Genn

Having a favorite color is like having a favorite lung. — Sara Genn

As a community of artists, we might just keep safe each other's love affair. — Sara Genn

Ideas bubble differently when we're forced to inquire about the obvious. — Sara Genn

Does an artist truly need to understand her times in order to create? I'm not sure. We're all sitting in a context. It's a market. — Sara Genn

Play is your route to mastery. — Sara Genn

Half of the pleasure of painting and feeling the joy of the creative act is sharing it with others and the feeling of connection. It could just be the colour. But it is something that someone other than you has seen and felt. It is momentous. It is magic. — Sara Genn

There's a saying that goes, 'The universe gives you a whisper, then a nudge, then a push and then an anvil on your head. — Sara Genn

Why can't we all just acknowledge that 'nature' - that is, 'sex' or 'erotic' images, which are really just 'attracters' are everywhere. Of course a flower looks like what it looks like - that's what it is - to a bee. — Sara Genn

Things we do regularly become buried with habits, and we lose the ability to extract their powers to inspire. — Sara Genn

Make a searching and fearless inventory of your creative curiosity. — Sara Genn

Learn from the greats, and expose yourself to better work. — Sara Genn

If an artist comes intuitively from the point of design, notan - lightness/darkness - is natural. — Sara Genn

A millionaire is a person who is free, who does what she loves, who has unlimited materials, her choice of tools, abundance, inspiration, freedom and an inflated sense of entitlement to have, create and get more. — Sara Genn

Once you sophisticate the in-betweens, your blacks and whites can take their solos and shine. — Sara Genn

The strategy of keeping the studio close, like an outbuilding five paces from the house, or in the loft next door, or with the studio on one end and the bed on the other - makes art always available. — Sara Genn

I can hide as much as I want in my colours — Sara Genn

Every task is given equal importance - that way I can pick and choose my tasks based on the ebb and flow of my creative metabolism. — Sara Genn

Rules are, like an ashtray-in-progress, meant to be thrown, poked and reshaped to suit yourself. — Sara Genn

You are responsible for understanding your limitations. — Sara Genn

You are responsible for radicalizing your strengths. — Sara Genn

The Painter's Keys is a timeless, universal guide to lifemanship masquerading as a painting blog. — Sara Genn

The 'wandering studio' gathers and stores experiences, takes chances with the unfamiliar and requires a measure of self-trust. Mistakes are part of the change of scene. — Sara Genn

I value the momentum of making the list and the drive to tick. Sometimes I add stuff I've already accomplished so I can get going on my feelings of accomplishment. — Sara Genn