A landscape watercolor painting titled Der Vierwaldstättersee by Joseph Mallord William Turner is one of the works that informed some of the Watercolor Quotes by the artists

These Watercolor Quotes allow an insight into how some famous artists related to the watercolor medium.

BY OGENENE

Watercolor quotes is one way of knowing how watercolor artists feel about the medium. For centuries, artists have been using watercolor as a medium for artistic expression. Although for many years some artists saw watercolor as a lesser medium than oil and acrylic, the medium gained prominence when some modern artists began to see the viability of this incredible medium.

Artists like Winslow Homer, John Singer Sergeant, John La Farge, Thomas Moran, and William Trost Richards gave credence to the medium through their artistic careers. Other artists who used watercolor as a medium of artistic expression throughout the career are Thomas Eakins, George Inness, Maxfield Parrish, Jessie Willcox Smith, Louis C. Tiffany, Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast, Charles Demuth, Wassily Kandinsky, Emil Nolde, Paul Klee, Egon Schiele, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Edward Hopper.

All these artists used watercolor for some of their epic paintings.  In some cases, they formed a bond with the medium that had a great impact on their lives.

One way of understanding many artists’ relationship to the watercolor medium is to examine their quotes about the medium.

Here are some watercolor quotes that illuminate the experience of artists and their relationship with the watercolor medium.

Quotes About Watercolor Love

I do not deny that I have made drawings and watercolors of an erotic nature. But they are always works of art. Are there no artists who have done erotic pictures? Egon Schiele

You will see – in the future, I will live by my watercolors. Winslow Homer

Writing nonfiction is more like sculpture, a matter of shaping the research into the finished thing. Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolors. Every stroke you put down you have to go with. Of course, you can rewrite, but the original strokes are still there in the texture of the thing. Joan Didion

My father taught me to paint when I was young with watercolors and so I learned at a very young age the essential elements of the value of light and composition. Matthew Modine

Being creative is my idea of heaven. I’m just incredibly fortunate that I can do it in artwork. Watercolor is what I started out with. What I love about watercolor is that a lot of happy accidents occur. Jane Seymour

I do tend to use watercolors – I love the splatter sort of thing you can do with watercolors. Mini Grey

Watercolor Quotes About the Shades and Tints of Life

I spend a lot of time doing watercolors and playing music in my apartment. Lola Kirke

Watercolor is a swim in the metaphysics of life… a mirror of one’s own character. Let it be unpredictable and colorful. Anonymous

Watercolours, when they are framed, are separated from the viewer by glass. With a canvas painting the viewer can look and see the brush strokes, texture and even touch one’s painting if so inclined. The glass separates the viewer from the material… less satisfying visually… and yet they have to be protected. Denise Bezanson

In watercolor, if you are not in trouble, then you’re in trouble. Selma Blackburn

Only once in the last thirty years have I made a duplicate, and that was a watercolor from my oil picture now owned by the Layton Art Gallery, Milwaukee, called ‘Hark! the Lark. Winslow Homer

Watercolor is like life. Better get it right the first time – you don’t get a second chance! Sergei Bongart

Perhaps watercolour is more art than acrylics or oil because the opportunity to correct errors is very limited as the colours are transparent… The sun, wind, and temperature influences water-pigment-paper!! Everything flows, painting with watercolors! Adriana Buggino

This isn’t a watercolor, it’s a mural. Erich Segal

Watercolor is a medium that can be as demanding and temperamental as those who choose to paint with it. But it is a colorful and exciting medium all the same – well suited to describing the many moods of the subject, as well as those of the artist wielding the brush. Jean Burman

Relationship Watercolor Quotes

A photograph to me is always a reminder of how the person was on a certain day in that certain light fixed. When I look at a watercolor of that same person, it seems to me alive, more open than a photograph. Francesco Clemente

Translucence is an effect unique to the medium of watercolor and the lure that beckons me into the studio for yet another creative adventure. Michele Cooper

Part of why I like watercolor is that mistakes are visible, and you can’t really repair much. It has to look easy. When it comes out, it looks easy, but to get to that point takes a lot of doing. Chris Raschka

Watercolors Are More Difficult to Control

Watercolors are more difficult to control and very often a mistake in color or value is not easy to fix. Oils, on the other hand, can be manipulated much more easily. People often ask me which one I prefer, and the answer is the one I’m using at the time.

Guy Corriero

Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolors. Every stroke you put down you have to go with. Of course, you can rewrite, but the original strokes are still there in the texture of the thing. Joan Didion

Because watercolor actually moves on the paper, it is the most active of all mediums, almost a performance art. Nita Engle

I have no interest in the dark and gloomy. To me, the delight of watercolor is in capturing the light within the white paper by surrounding it with successive washes of transparent color. Jean Grastorf

Watercolor, with all its subtle color and value gradations and its many welcome surprises, is the perfect medium for capturing mood. Ray Hendershot

Everything about watercolor appeals to me, but perhaps above all, the peculiarities of the medium tend to challenge my efforts to control it… it’s more like a performance or a dance. John Hulsey

On Painting a Successful Watercolor Painting

Watercolour is probably the most satisfying of all mediums. Although difficult in the beginning, after practice its mysteries will unfold, providing the utmost pleasure for the dedicated. Robert Lovett

I’d rather lose large than win slightly. I think life is an oil painting, not a watercolor. Janet McTeer

To paint a successful watercolor it seems one must know what the finished result will look like before the first stroke of blossoming color is applied to the paper. Dianne Middleton

My drawings at first were made altogether in watercolors, but they wanted softness and a great deal of finish. John James Audubon

Watercolour painting is notoriously difficult – so much depends on directness and speed, and certainty of intention. Tentative or fumbling touches are disastrous, for they cannot be obliterated easily.

Walter J. Phillips

If London is a watercolor, New York is an oil painting. Peter Shaffer

Watercolor offers us, as artists, an inspired approach to the age-old process of making paintings sing. Jeffrey J. Watkins.

These watercolor quotes are just a few by famous and emerging artists who are using the medium. There are so many other watercolor quotes that provide great insight into how watercolor artists relate to the medium.  Hopefully, the ones presented here are sufficient to open a window into how artists view watercolor as a medium.

Do you have quotes about watercolor paintings that you will like to share? Let us know about them. Follow Us: Instagram–Facebook– Pinterest

Originally posted 2019-01-29 01:27:27.