60 Great Quotes On Color
Enjoy this collection of quotes on color.
Which is your favorite? Have one to add? Share it in the comments.
“Of all God's gifts to the sighted man, color is holiest, the most divine, the most solemn.”
- John Ruskin
“In nature, light creates the color. In the picture, color creates the light.”
- Hans Hofmann
“Light is a thing that cannot be reproduced, but must be represented by something else – by color.”
- Paul Cezanne
“Color helps to express light, not the physical phenomenon, but the only light that really exists, that in the artist's brain.”
- Henri Matisse
“Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.”
- Paul Klee
“Everything that you can see in the world around you presents itself to your eyes only as an arrangement of patches of different colors.”
- John Ruskin
“The fact that the colors in the flower have evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; that means insects can see the colors. That adds a question: does this aesthetic sense we have also exist in lower forms of life?”
- Richard P. Feynman
“The painter has to unlearn the habit of thinking that things seem to have the color which common sense says they 'really' have, and to learn the habit of seeing things as they appear.”
- Bertrand Russell
“Color creates, enhances, changes, reveals and establishes the mood of the painting.”
- Kiff Holland
“Color is a power which directly influences the soul.”
― Wassily Kandinsky
“The chief function of color should be to serve expression.”
- Henri Matisse
“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.”
- Oscar Wilde
“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.”
- Pablo Picasso
“All colors arouse specific associative ideas…”
- Yves Klein
“Color provokes a psychic vibration. Color hides a power still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body.”
- Wassily Kandinsky
“Colors produce a corresponding spiritual vibration, and it is only as a step towards this spiritual vibration that the elementary physical impression is of importance.”
- Wassily Kandinsky
“Colors express the main psychic functions of man.”
- Carl Gustav Jung
“Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams.”
- Paul Gauguin
Andy Warhol – Modern Masters BBC – Documentary
Learn more about the iconic artist Andy Warhol in this documentary.
View more Photographer’s Videos here.
My Recommended Reading Lists
Looking for good books? Browse my Recommended Reading lists.
Topics include …
Creativity, Color, Graphic Design, Digital Photography, Photography Appreciation, Photography Theory, Photography Business, Important Thoughts, Cultures, Climate Change, Meditation and Journaling.
If you’re looking for great books on these subjects look at these books first.
Yes, these lists are missing some of the important classics in these fields that are less accessible and require more effort. Essential, clear, actionable – these are the criteria I’ve used for this selection.
These are some of the books that have changed my life. One of them might change yours too.
Enjoy!
David Hockney – Joiners – Documentary
English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. David Hockney has at the forefront of issues of representation in art for decades. His photo-collages (“joiners”) have become iconic while his theories of the use of technology in advancing the practices of representation throughout the history of western art are provocative and controversial.
View more Videos On Photographers here.
Read conversations with photographers here.
22 Quotes On Art
Here’s a collection of my favorite quotes on abstraction.
“Art is not a thing; it is a way.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.” – Stephen Sondheim
“All religions, arts, and sciences are branches of the same tree.” – Albert Einstein
“Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Art disturbs, science reassures.” – Georges Braque, Le Jour et la nuit
“A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind.” – Eugene Ionesco
“A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” – Paul Cezanne
“Art is literacy of the heart” – Elliot Eisner
“All art is but imitation of nature.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“Great art picks up where nature ends.” – Marc Chagall
“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.” – Andre Gide
“The perfection of art is to conceal art.” – Quintilian
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” – Aristotle
“While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality… true art lies in a reality that is felt.” – Odilon Redon
The principle of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.” – Jerzy Kosinski
“That art is best which suggests most.” – Austin O’Malley
“What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things… it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface.” – Constantin Brancusi
“Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.” – Khalil Gibran
“The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” – Jonathan Swift
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” – Edgar Degas
“Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.” – Paul Klee
“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.” ― Pablo Picasso
Find more Creativity Quotes here.
Discover more quotes daily in my Twitter and Facebook streams.
Before I Die I Want To … Candy Chang
“In her New Orleans neighborhood, artist and TED Fellow Candy Chang turned an abandoned house into a giant chalkboard asking a fill-in-the-blank question: “Before I die I want to ___.” Her neighbors’ answers — surprising, poignant, funny — became an unexpected mirror for the community. (What’s your answer?)
Candy Chang creates art that prompts people to think about their secrets, wishes and hopes — and then share them. She is a TED Senior Fellow.”
Watch more creativity videos here.
4 Lessons In Creativity – Julie Burstein
“Radio host Julie Burstein talks with creative people for a living — and shares four lessons about how to create in the face of challenge, self-doubt and loss. Hear insights from filmmaker Mira Nair, writer Richard Ford, sculptor Richard Serra and photographer Joel Meyerowitz.
As a producer, Julie Burstein builds places to talk (brilliantly) about creative work. Her book “Spark: How Creativity Works” shares what she has learned.”
Watch more creativity videos here.
One Year Of Turning The World Inside Out – JR
“Street artist JR made a wish in 2011: Join me in a worldwide photo project to show the world its true face. Now, a year after his TED Prize wish, he shows how giant posters of human faces, pasted in public, are connecting communities, making change, and turning the world inside out. You can join in atinsideoutproject.net
With a camera, a dedicated wheatpasting crew and the help of whole villages and favelas, 2011 TED Prize winner JR shows the world its true face.”
Watch more creativity videos here.
New Book – Process
My new book Process details the many aspects of my creative process.
I hope you’ll find it to be useful as well as interesting.
“An artist’s creations come out of far more than the activities in their primary medium. How artist’s get there is, perhaps, just as important as where they arrive. This is the creative process rather than the creative product. That’s what this book is about.
John Paul Caponigro details many aspects of his creative process – color, composition, drawing, iphoneography, writing and more. He shows how each discipline and different modes of operating with them contribute to the completion of finished works of art. The resulting synergy is stimulating, enriching, and enlivening. Instead of a technical book that shows you how to write, draw, and photograph, this books shows you how seemingly separate disciplines and creations combine dynamically to form a single creative process that results in a life’s work.
Above all, this book reveals that the creative process is a process of exploration, a journey of discovery that offers many insights along the way and never ends. You’ll be inspired to try these activities yourself, practicing them in your own ways for your own purposes, as you progress on your own creative journey.”
Preview Process here.
Preview all of my books here.