Henri Matisse
Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.Collection: Art
Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.Collection: Happiness
With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.Collection: Art
Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul.Collection: Art
He who loves, flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free and nothing holds him back.Collection: Love
An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success, etc.Collection: Success
There are always flowers for those who want to see them.Collection: Nature
Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is.Collection: Art
It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression.Collection: Design
An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.Collection: Nature
I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.Collection: Art
Creativity takes courage.Collection: Courage
What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.Collection: Art
There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.
It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.
In love, the one who runs away is the winner.
A young woman has young claws, well sharpened. If she has character, that is. And if she hasn't so much the worse for you.
I wouldn't mind turning into a vermilion goldfish.
Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.
My curves are not crazy.
I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.
I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some sort of Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.
You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.
In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking on a tightrope.
Cutting into color reminds me of the sculptor's direct carving.
I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it.
Work cures everything.
Exactitude is not truth.
I have been no more than a medium, as it were.
I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.
Jazz is rhythm and meaning.
A picture must possess a real power to generate light and for a long time now I've been conscious of expressing myself through light or rather in light.
I'm growing old, I delight in the past.
Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.Collection: Art
Color was not given to us in order that we should imitate Nature. It was given to us so that we can express our emotions.Collection: Order
Another word for creativity is courage.Collection: Courage
Don't try to be original. Be simple. Be good technically, and if there is something in you, it will come out.Collection: Simple
Creative people are curious, flexible, and independent with a tremendous spirit and a love of play.Collection: Independent
Nothing can be accomplished without love.Collection: Accomplished
The artists must see all things as if he were seeing them for the first time. All his life he must see as he did when he was a child.Collection: Children
Art is an escape from reality.Collection: Art
Drawing is putting a line around an idea.Collection: Ideas
The essential thing is to work in a state of mind that approaches prayer.Collection: Prayer
Seeing is in itself a creative act which requires effort.Collection: Effort
Everything that we see in our daily lives is more or less distorted by acquired habits and this is perhaps more evident in an age like ours when cinema posters and magazines present us every day with a flood of ready-made images which are to the eye what prejudices are to the mind. The effort to see things without distortion demands a kind of courage; and this courage is essential to the artist, who has to look at everything as though he were seeing it for the first time.Collection: Eye
Creation begins with vision.Collection: Vision
I've been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.Collection: Queens
A certain blue enters your soulCollection: Blue
It is with color that you render light, though you must also feel this light, have it within yourself.Collection: Light
Color exists in itself, possessing its own beauty.Collection: Color