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Quote by Nelson Shanks

“Dramatic use of color, harmonious design, the interplay of light and shadow across a variety of textures, the portrayal of the figure and other subject matter that reflects the sophistication and beauty I find in nature - all presented from a unique point of view - can only be successfully achieved with a sound command of the painter's craft... history will determine how successful I have been.”

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 try to think and design in color.”

Thinking Trying Design Color

Author:Nelson Shanks

“I'm drawing in my head pretty much.”

Author:Nelson Shanks

“We got interested in aesthetics, and then at the end of all of it we fell off the precipice. It's almost like crawling back because so many techniques are lost, and so we're going to have a [small] reserve of teachers who can teach the vast number of interested students. We have these poor, hungry, starving people who want to learn something and no place to get it. It's a tragedy.”

People Want Ends Lost Poor Numbers Teach Teacher Students Tragedy Technique Hungry Reserves Starving Aesthetics Crawling Precipice

Author:Nelson Shanks

“So really what I am trying to do is create and understand form. But then too, color enters into it because a lot of things are color changes without a value change, which wouldn't show up if you were just using a non-color medium.”

Ifs Trying Shows Form Values Color Mediums

Author: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.”

Ifs Wells May Done Use Might Hate Half Cutting Materials I Hate Paid Seven Eight Scissors

Author:Nelson Shanks

“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