Quotes from John F. Carlson

To the artist, the forest is an asylum of peace and dancing shadows.

Good colour really means good taste; and 'powerful' colour means a reserve, to give a climax its full force, and not 'red, white, and blue all over.

Too much reality in a picture is always a disappointment to the imaginative soul. We love suggestion and not hard facts.

Trust your feelings entirely about colour, and then, even if you arrive at no infallible colour theory, you will at least have the credit of having your own colour sense.

We must have design in a picture even at the expense of truth. You are using nature for your artistic needs.

A picture is a work of art, not because it is 'modern,' nor because it is 'ancient,' but because it is a sincere expression of human feeling.

We must not imitate the externals of nature with so much fidelity that the picture fails to evoke that wonderful teasing recurrence of emotion that marks the contemplation of a work of art.

The artist himself is often surprised at the finished work of art. He cannot tell 'how it happened', nor could he repeat the feat at someone's bidding.

Rest assured that if you work every day at your art, using the materials nearest at hand, you will gradually discover such beauty in them that they will fill you with happiness.

If you train yourself in memory work, you fearlessly attack and rearrange your material, for you can retain your original impression.