Inspirational Quotations on Painters

I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist

In old times men used their powers of painting to show the objects of faith, in later times they use the objects of faith to show their powers of painting.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter

Drawing is speaking to the eye; talking is painting to the ear.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.
—John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) American Expatriate Painter

What a strange vanity painting is; it attracts admiration by resembling the original, we do not admire.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright

Good painters imitate nature, bad ones spew it up.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist

Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist

I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.
—Salvador Dali (1904–89) Spanish Painter

Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter

Sunlight is painting.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer

If we could but paint with the hand what we see with the eye.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist

A good painter is to paint two main things, men and the working of man’s mind.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Architect

The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist

Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher