Quotes from Walter J. Phillips

The play of sunlight is amusement enough for a lazy man.

The beauty and wonders of nature are as alluring as the pursuit of Art, and made of me a landscape painter.

A painter may be an abandoned mimic; at school he copies his teachers, which is only right, but he copies in turn every artist in town, which is not. He may do you that honour.

Beauty, pleasure, and the good things of life are intensified, and perhaps only exist, by reason of contrast.

Subject has the variety of life.

Any subject is suitable provided it is of sufficient interest, but the design must be very carefully considered, and plenty of time and thought given to its construction.

It is not in the nature of lenses to tell the whole truth. They are instruments of exaggeration and belittlement.

The most interesting studio work, and perhaps the most practicable, is painting from pencil sketches and notes... It ensures the elimination of all facts but those essential to the effect.

It is the incompetent and the neglected artist who charges the public with ignorance, stupidity, and indifference. He raves loudly, but he is incomprehensible, even inarticulate, in his work.

Submit your work to interested societies for exhibition where the critics in the light of their physical well-being and according to the extent of their knowledge, may appraise them conveniently.

The sincere artist is usually his own best critic, but continuous and prolonged work on one painting will sometimes dull his judgment... The critic is in demand, but he must be competent.

Beauty may be perceived in any scene by one with sympathy and understanding. Beauty is in the mind.

There must be a judicious arrangement of all the parts. Considered conversely, the artist's task is to fill his panel with a design that conforms to its shape and is beautiful in itself.