Here is a blog post dedicated to all of my favorite Art Quotes, either from famous artists or simply beautiful quotes I think every artist and creative needs to hear at least once in their life.
I love writing down quotes in my journals, so I have collected quite a few that I thought I should share with any readers who just need a little bit of inspiration to their day.
I hope you enjoy!
50 Beautiful Quotes About Art & Creativity
1. “… I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” – Vincent Van Gogh
2. “Everything you can imagine is real.” – Pablo Picasso
3. When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it.” – Yoko Ono
4. “Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.” – Chuck Klosterman
5. “You are the universe experiencing itself as human for a little while.” – Eckhart Tolle
6. “I don’t paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.” – Frida Kahlo
7. “I thought I would be understood without words.” – Vincent Van Gogh
8. “Where am I when I’m not in reality or in my imagination?” – Dir Andrel Tarkovsky
9. “The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” – Robert Henri
10. “If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.” -Emile Zola
11. “I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones.” – Franz Kafka
12. “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” – George Bernard Shaw
13. “It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.” – Vincent Van Gogh
14. “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” – Leondardo Da Vinci
15. “Art is the lie that enables us to learn the truth.” – Pablo Picasso
16. “I dream my painting and paint my dream.” – Vincent Van Gogh
17. “It ‘s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you are ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready, there is only now.” – Hugh Laurie
18. “If I find in myself desires in which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis
19. “I live in my dreams – that’s what you sense. Other people live in dreams but not in their own. That’s the difference.” -Herman Hesse
20. “Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? no. Just as one can never learn how to paint.” – Pablo Picasso
21. “One must give value to their existence by behaving as if one’s very existence were a work of art.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
22. “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton
23. “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.” – Pablo Picasso
24. “Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion. Life is like a train of moods like a string of beads, and, as we pass through them, they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue. . . . ” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
25. “I am an artist you know … it is my right to be odd.” – E.A. Bucchianeri
26. “Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for color, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential.” – Wassily Kandinsky
27. “Creativity is a way of sharing your soul with the world.” – Brené Brown
28. “Self-consciousness is the enemy of all art, be it acting, writing, painting, or living itself, which is the greatest art of all.” – Ray Bradbury
29. “It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection.” – Oscar Wilde
30. “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” – Henry Ward Beecher
31. “Art is when a human tells another human what it is to be human.” – Adrian Elmer
32. “Art is to console those who are broken by life.” – Vincent Van Gogh
33. “There is no reason not to consider the world as one gigantic painting.” – Robert Rauschenbert
34. “The prettier the garden, the dirtier the hands of the gardener.” – B.E. Barnes
35. “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Pablo Picasso
36. “There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” – Vincent Van Gogh
37. “Nature is a haunted house – but Art – is a house that tries to be haunted.” – Emily Dickinson
38. “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” – Pablo Piacasso
39. “All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn’t your pet – it’s your kid. It grows up and talks back to you.” – Joss Whedon
40. “The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.” – Leonardo Da Vinci
41. “A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know.” -Diane Arbus
42. “Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination.” – W. Somerset Maugham
43. “If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.” – Edward Hopper
44. “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.” – Pablo Picasso
45. “My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece” – Claude Monet
46. “In the haunted house of life, art is the only stair that doesn’t creak.” – Tom Robbins
47. “Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.” – Vincent Van Gogh
48. “When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty… but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” – R. Buckminster Fuller
49. “I don’t believe in art. I believe in artists.” – Marcel Duchamp
50. “I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking” – Albert Einstein
Hope you found some inspiration from this list of Art Quotes here. If you have some of your own that you would like to share, leave it in the comments down below! I always love to hear from you!
And until next time my lovely readers,
xx
See Also:
What is Free Writing: Stream-of-Consciousness in Journaling
50 Beautiful Life-Changing Quotes
100 Instagram Hashtags for Artists
Inspired
I absolutely love these art quotes. They’re so inspiring & really capture the healing power of art. One of my favorite quotes that I think would fit perfectly here is by Vincent van Gogh, ‘I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.’ It speaks to the passion and dedication that art can bring to our lives.
Thank you so much for your comment and for sharing the quote! It’s definitely a powerful one