„Painting is not very difficult when you don't know how; but when you know, oh! then, it's another matter.“

„It does not matter how badly you paint so long as you don't paint badly like other people.“

—  George Moore (novelist) Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist 1852 - 1933

Источник: Confessions of a Young Man http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12278/12278-h/12278-h.htm (1886), Ch. 6.

„If you don't know what Ad Reinhardt's) paintings are about, you don't know what painting is about [after Reinhardt's death in 1967].“

—  Frank Stella American artist 1936

Quote of 1967; as quoted in Abstract Expressionism, David Anfam, Thames and Hudson Ltd London, 1990
Quotes, 1960 - 1970

„I painted for 20 years without liking them very much, you know. I burnt them at the end of every year. For 20 years I burnt the whole bunch because I didn't want them to get in the market. And well, sometimes when I was starving, I used to sell one cheap, you know. But I always regretted it because you hate to think of a painting in somebody's house that you don't like well enough, you know.“

—  Agnes Martin American artist 1912 - 2004

after 2000

„But I find, because of modern painting, that things which couldn't be seen in terms of painting, things you couldn't paint.... it is not that you paint them, bit is the connection. I imagine that Cézanne, when he painted a ginger pot with apples, must have been very grotesque in his day, because a still life was something set up of beautiful things. It may be very difficult, for instance, to put a Rheingold bottled beer on the table and a couple of glasses and a package of Lucky Strike [cigarets]. I mean, you know, there are certain things you cannot paintat a particular time, and it takes a certain attitude how to see those things, in terms of art.“

—  Willem de Kooning Dutch painter 1904 - 1997

In an interview (March 1960) with David Sylvester, edited for broadcasting by the BBC first published in 'Location', Spring 1963; as quoted in Interviews with American Artists, by David Sylvester; Chatto & Windus, London 2001, p. 54
1960's

„You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.“

—  Robert M. Pirsig, книга Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Источник: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

„But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano / act / paint / write a decent play?"
Yes… the same age you will be if you don't.“

—  Julia Cameron, книга The Artist's Way

Источник: The Artist's Way

„You don't paint the way someone, by observing his life, thinks you have to paint, you paint the way you have to in order to give. That's life itself, and someone will look and say it is the product of knowing, but it has nothing to do with knowing, it has to do with giving. The question about knowing will naturally be wrong. When you've finished giving, the look surprises you as anyone else. Some painters talking about painting are like a lot of kids dancing at a prom. An hour later you are too shy to get out on the floor.“

—  Franz Kline American painter 1910 - 1962

1950's, Evergreen Review, 1958

„Don't you love it when people in school are like, "I'm a bad test taker?" You mean, you're stupid. Oh, you struggle with that part where we find out what you know? Oh. No, no, I can totally relate. See, because I'm a brilliant painter, minus my God-awful brushstrokes. Oh, how the masterpiece is crystal up here[points to head], but once paint hits canvas, I develop Parkinson's. I apologize if there's a Parkinson's painter in the audience. I assume your best work is in the A. M. Probably gets a bit abstract by noon.“

—  Daniel Tosh American stand-up comedian 1975

Happy Thoughts (2011)

„I think half the point of painting a picture is that you don't know what will happen … that if painters did know what was going to happen they wouldn't bother to do it.“

—  Lucian Freud British painter and engraver 1922 - 2011

Interview with Martin Gayford, Independent on Sunday 26 May 2002
Other

„When I know your soul, I will paint your eyes“

—  Amedeo Modigliani Italian painter and sculptor 1884 - 1920

„You know how fussy and particular I am in painting. I am ever removing the paint and repainting the spot until I am completely exhausted.“

—  Arshile Gorky Armenian-American painter 1904 - 1948

Источник: posthumous, Movements in art since 1945, p. 15: (in Gorky Memorial Exhibition, Schwabacher pp. 12)

„You can't be in an unconscious state and paint. Because whatever is in your mind, and not the subject matter, but the feelings that you have related to that subject matter, is what you're going to paint. So, the beginning is not actually painting, you know. The beginning of painting is not you put down green, and then you like pink, and you put down pink.
Painting's not about that anymore than music is about this sound and that sound.... And it's something that drives you to expression. And it's irresistible.“

—  Agnes Martin American artist 1912 - 2004

1974
1970's, interview, K. Horsfield & L. Blumenthal

„You know who doesn't like that bit? Cops. They don't like it. They don't like it. And I think its important -- I'm being sincere. I think its important that we acknowledge, all of us, that there are plenty of good, decent, ethical, very brave cops, who put their lives on the line every day, and they don't appreciate being painted with this broad brush as being violent predators just because of the actions of a minority of their brothers. They don't like being stereotyped so that when you see blue, you just think "Oh, violent thug."“

—  David Cross American comedian, writer and actor 1964

They don't appreciate it.
Making America Great Again

„The photograph reproduces objects in a different way from the painted picture, because the camera does not apprehend objects: it sees them. In 'free-hand drawing' the object is apprehended in all it parts... By tracing the outlines with the aid of a projector you can bypass and elaborate this process of apprehension. You no longer apprehend but see and make (without design) what you have not apprehended. And when you don't know what you are making, you don't know, either, what to alter or distort.“

—  Gerhard Richter German visual artist, born 1932 1932

Источник: after 2000, Doubt and belief in painting' (2003), p. 51, note 60

„He [ Jackson Pollock ] just jumps in before he knows how to swim. [when Morandi sees paintings of Pollock for the first time]“

—  Giorgio Morandi Italian painter 1890 - 1964

in Morandi 1894 – 1964, published by Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, ed: M. C. Bandera & R. Miracco - 2008; p. 298
1945 - 1964

„Oh, If I had been able to realize you with my hand. If the painted canvas was able to give me your dear image. The labor was you ['The Unknown'] the work of art was me – I have kissed your head, I have looked elsewhere… You are neither good, nor charitable. You do not know how to love. – You are only great and beautiful. I sacrificed to tenderness and still, my self, you do not know how to love.“

—  Marianne von Werefkin expressionist painter 1860 - 1938

Vol. 1: 'My beautiful One, My Unique!', pp. 130-140
1895 - 1905, Lettres à un Inconnu, 1901 – 1905; Museo Communale, Ascona

„Painting is being alive. Through my painting, I beat back this world that stops us living and where we are in constant danger of being destroyed... No, you have to know when to keep silent.“

—  Bram van Velde Dutch painter 1895 - 1981

short quotes, 31 December 1966; pp. 60-61
1960's

„We don't make mistakes; we just have happy accidents. And that's when you really experience the joy of painting.“

—  Bob Ross American painter, art instructor, and television host 1942 - 1995

Bob Ross: Beauty Is Everywhere. Collection 1: Ep. 8 "Wintertime Blues"; The Joy of Painting Season 20: Episode 3 Bob Ross: Winter in Pastel.

„I've painted for a very long time, but I don't get tired or bored by it; I love to do it. If I don't paint one day, I don't feel well physically or mentally. My eyes bother me when I don't paint. But when I paint a full day, I feel satisfied and everything seems to be OK. I would never stop, never retire. I don't see how people can retire; I don't understand that. My brother Moses died while he was painting. He was actually working on a painting, and the last words he said were to the model: "Phoebe, don't frown."“

—  Raphael Soyer American artist 1899 - 1987

Then he died. He worked to the very last minute.
As quoted in Paper Lanterns (Quotations from The Sun) p. 59.