Quotes from E. J. Hughes

If I didn't have a conviction that a serious painter can portray Nature more profoundly than the best colour photography, I'd probably give it all up or go abstract or take up photography.

The primitive style makes nature look like stage scenery.

It would be nice once during my life to go over [to Europe] and study the original paintings of the Masters.

I felt landscapes would sell more readily, and not being equipped psychologically to be a teacher or commercial artist, that was important.

It is a matter mostly of having the time to spare from my finished paintings to put in on travelling and sketching out of doors.

One of the things I like about our contract is that you have relieved me of a great deal of personal interviewing and corresponding, among other things, which allows me a lot more time for painting.

One of the main reasons I paint is because I think nature is so wonderful. I want to try to get my feelings of that down on canvas, if possible.

I am hoping that, with the added wisdom of old age, I can still look ahead for an improvement in tone, line, colour and composition.

Although not of the quality of my later work, I feel there is some quality to it [my early work] in an art sense, and probably some additional quality in a biographical sense.

I've found from years of trial that the only way I can work is to make sketches in pencil from Nature, purely as reference material for future use in the studio.

I hope my work isn't dismissed by the critics as illustration or photography.