Villach, Austria - 20071. “An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success, etc.”
2. “An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.”
3. “Creativity takes courage.”
4. “Cutting into color reminds me of the direct carving of the sculptor.”
5. ”Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.”
6. “Drawing is putting a line (a)round an idea.”
7. “Exactitude is not truth.”
8. ”I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some sort of Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.”
9. “I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.”
10. “I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.”
11. “I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.”
12. “I have been no more than a medium, as it were.”
13. "In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows, and when there remains an energy that is all the stronger for being constrained, controlled and compressed."
14. "In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking of a tightrope."
15. “It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.”
16. “It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression.”
17. “I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it.”
18. “Surely the vogue of those twisted and contorted human figures must be as short as it is artificial.”
19. “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”
20. “There is an inherent truth which must be disengaged from the outward appearance of the object to be represented. This is the only truth that matters.”
21. “There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.”
22. “The use of expressive colors is felt to be one of the basic elements of the modern mentality, an historical necessity, beyond choice.”
23. "Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is."
24. “What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.”
25. “When I paint green, it doesn't mean grass; when I paint blue, it doesn't mean sky.”
26. “With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.”
27. “Work cures everything.”
28. “You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.”
