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Quote by John F. Carlson

“It is a curious fact that out-of-door nature is to the beginner an enormously overloaded 'property room.' He sees, for instance, the myriad of leaves upon the tree long before he sees the tree at all.”

Quote by John F. Carlson

Author

John F. Carlson

John F. Carlson was an influential American painter known for his landscapes, particularly his detailed depictions of the natural scenery in North America. more

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

Soul Hard Facts Reality Too Much Disappointment Suggestions Imaginative

Book:Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

Source: Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

“Do not be afraid that too much labour over the composition is going to kill the spontaneity. Those who absorb and digest their experiences are, of a sudden, mountains of strength and can produce pictures with spontaneous start and finish.”

Too Much Produce Mountain Labour Composition Spontaneous Spontaneity

Book:Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

Source: Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

“Reserve is strength; overstatement is weakness. No one cares to hear the singer's topmost notes when the voice is 'nigh onto breaking.”

Care Voice Strength Weakness Notes Singers Reserves No One Cares Overstatement

Author:John F. Carlson

“Art is a thing so much of the imagination, of the soul, that it is difficult to descend to the fundamentals of technique and yet make it plain to the student that these are but the 'means' and not an end in themselves.”

Mean Art Soul Ends Difficult Imagination Students Art Is Fundamentals Technique

Book:Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

Source: Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

“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.”

Ifs Feelings Trust Theory Credit Colour Infallible

Author:John F. Carlson

“You will learn to paint trees only by understanding them, their growth, their nature, their movement - and realizing that they are conscious living things. A tree seldom if ever encroaches upon the liberty of another tree. It never wastes its growth in unnecessary twistings.”

Ifs Understanding Growth Realizing Liberty Tree Movement Waste Conscious Paint Unnecessary Living Things

Book:Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

Source: Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

“The great paintings are the ones with the most subtle value relationships. The closer you could bring your values and still distinguish between them, the stronger you were as a painter.”

Stills Values Painting Stronger Painter Subtle

Author:John F. Carlson

“Clouds are fascinating to paint because they are the only element in a landscape that possesses free movement.”

Wonder Movement Elements Paint Clouds Landscape Fascinating Free Movement

Book:Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

Source: Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

“Philosophers and aestheticians may offer elegant and profound definitions of art and beauty, but for the painter they are all summed up in the phrase: To create a harmony.”

May Art Offers Harmony Profound Definitions Philosopher Painter Phrases Elegant

Author:Gino Severini

“I often wonder if we could not solve the world's problems on a similar basis of harmony.”

Ifs World Problem Wonder Bases Harmony Solve

Author:Artur Rodzinski