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Quote by Nelson Shanks

“If I am using a sable, it may start off as an eight or seven, but it's a double aught by the time I'm done. I hate brights... they have no use. You might as well buy a filbert and take the scissors and cut off half of what you paid for.”

Quote by Nelson Shanks

Author

Nelson Shanks was an artist known for his significant contributions to the field of painting. Renowned for his unique style that blended classical and modern elements, his work had a profound impact on the art world and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the late 20th century. more

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“I almost never do drawings, because I have found over the years that doing something in one medium and translating into another doesn't work. I like to conceive a painting in real scale and in color.”

Years Real Found Color Painting Drawing Scales Mediums Translate

Author:Nelson Shanks

“If you really want to seriously think about life, and therefore take painting very seriously... and take seriously the joys that it can bring to one, then you want to go to museums. You want to study the great of the past.”

Ifs Thinking Want Past Joy Study Painting Museums

Author:Nelson Shanks

“I think of music a lot when I paint. The theme of it to a degree is music. So instead of literally putting in music or literally putting in a musical instrument, I use only a hint of the instrument, but the brocaded pattern is like a line of Bach because of its order and the leaves going up are like passages from Vivaldi, and the emphasis on drapery is where the sound comes.”

Thinking Use Order Sound Lines Degrees Instruments Paint Musical Patterns Theme Passages Emphasis Hints Musical Instruments Vivaldi

Author:Nelson Shanks

“Nature is the best and really the only real vocabulary that an artist can legitimately work with.”

Real Artist Vocabulary

Author:Nelson Shanks

“Photographs and reality are just night and day. In reality, the information is all there. A photograph is just kind of a hint.”

Kind Reality Night Information Photography Photograph Hints

Author:Nelson Shanks

“There are times when I love to play all kinds of complicated games in painting. But this is one case when I need to be fairly straightforward. I'll just try to paint the man, his intelligence, his amiability and his stature, maybe paint him fairly close to humor and try to get it just right.”

Men Needs Trying Kind Play Games Cases He Man Painting Paint Complicated All Kinds Straightforward Stature

Author:Nelson Shanks

“We... joked a little about presidential portraits. He [Bill Clinton] told me that he and Harrison Ford had been joking recently about how chins drop with age, and he didn't want to look that way.”

Way Want Looks Littles Age Bills Clinton Presidential Portraits Chins Portraiture

Author:Nelson Shanks

“My career doesn't depend on painting Bill Clinton.”

Careers Painting Depends Bills Clinton Profession

Author:Nelson Shanks

“Realism has to be such high quality, you can't fake it. It's all hanging out there like the laundry.”

Quality Fake Hanging Out Realism Laundry High Quality

Author:Nelson Shanks

“A language not based on universal symbols or sensations is gibberish, a pitfall of modern art, no longer modern.”

Art Language Modern Universal Symbols Sensations Modern Art Pitfalls

Author:Nelson Shanks