"To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at." -- Claude Monet

"What people forget is that everything is unique. Nature never produces the same thing twice. Hence my stress on seeking the rapports de grand ecart: a small head on a large body; a large head on a small body. .I want to draw the mind in a direction it's not used to and wake it up. .I want to help the viewer discover something he wouldn't have discovered without me." -- Pablo Picasso, as recalled by Francoise Gilot in the book: Life with Picasso, by Francoise Gilot and Carlton Lake, McGraw-Hill, NY - 1964.

"Every single object shown in a picture should contribute directly to the central theme." -- Norman Rockwell - From book: Rockwell on Rockwell: How I make a picture, by Norman Rockwell, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1979

"To draw you must close your eyes and sing." -- Pablo Picasso

"Do not let it look as if you reasoned too much. Painting must be impulsive to be worth while -- if you are a painter there is an aesthetic excitement about painting which is one of the most beautiful experiences that can be. .Put things down while you feel that joy....." - Charles W. Hawthorne - 1872-1930 - American Artist

"The intelligent painter is always making use of accidents." - Charles W. Hawthorne

"Great painting is painting in which the spaces between the figures are charged with as much energy as the figures that determine them." - Andre Masson

"It has become obvious that art itself in America is without what might be called a natural environment. Art and artists often exist within a public climate that is either indifferent or hostile to their profession. Or otherwise they may concentrate within small colonies wherein they find a sort of self-protection and self-affirmation. .The art colonies are severely limited in the variety of experience and opinion which they can contribute to art. .They become almost monastic in the degree of their withdrawal from common society; and thus their art product becomes increasingly ingrown, tapping less and less the vital streams of common experience, rejecting more and more the human imperatives which have propelled and inspired art in past times." - Ben Shahn in The Shape of Content, 1957

"At any moment in perception there is a figure on a ground. .For to be completely aware of the structure of form and space we call an image, we must differentiate two- and three-dimensional regions of space, and ultimately separate the figure which is non-space from its environment which is space. Space ceases to be a vague, undefined region of nothingness, and by virtue of the figure's presence, assumes both a position and shape. .And a single line or mark, however minimal, is sufficient to constitute a figure for this purpose." - Graham Collier, in his book: Form, Space & Vision, Third Edition, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972

"Perhaps space-composition in art gains its power from the concentrated focus on space presented within such a small area. .To create the illusion of vast space within the physical limits of a canvas, a piece of paper, or even a wall, is almost certainly going to produce a heightened perception of space for the viewer." - Graham Collier in Form, Space & Vision, Third Edition

"Expression to my way of thinking does not consist of the passion mirrored upon a human face or betrayed by a violent gesture. .The whole arrangement of my picture is expressive. .The place occupied by the figures or objects, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything plays a part." - Henri Matisse, quoted by Graham Collier in Form, Space & Vision, Third Edition

"I arrange my subject as I want it, then I go ahead and paint it, like a child. . I want a red to be sonorous, to sound like a bell; if it doesn't turn out that way, I add more reds and other colors until I get it. . I am no cleverer than that. .I have no rules and no methods; anyone can look at my materials or watch how I paint--he will see that I have no secrets." - Pierre Auguste Renoir

"Take the ugliest object or subject and make it beautiful. . Do not look for pictures in nature, get a problem." -- Charles Hawthorne, American Artist - 1872-1930

"That which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal; from which it follows that irregularity -- that is to say, the unexpected, surprise and astonishment, are an essential part and characteristic of beauty." -- Charles Baudelaire

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." -- Albert Einstein

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