Calling all aspiring Picassos and wannabe Frida Kahlos! Whether you’re a seasoned brush wielder or someone who thinks “mixed media” means watching TV while scrolling through Instagram, these amazing art quotes are about to rock your world.
Famous artists have been dropping wisdom bombs about creativity since the first Neanderthal scratched into a cave wall. And, lucky for us, someone wrote them down. From the mind-bending musings of Salvador Dali to the “happy little accidents” philosophy of Bob Ross, these inspiring art quotes are like a pep talk for your inner artist.
So grab your beret (because every artist needs a signature look, right?), and let’s dive into this colorful world of artistic inspiration. Who knows? By the end of this article, you’ll feel so inspired that you might even want to fling paint like Jackson Pollock after his third espresso.
Table of Contents
Do You Love Art?
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Inspirational Art Quotes
Ready to get your creative juices flowing faster than paint squeezed from a tube? These inspirational quotes will make you want to grab the nearest crayon and start doodling. Just don’t illustrate the walls. Let’s stick to paper for now, shall we?
“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
― Vincent Van Gogh
“Creativity takes courage.”
― Henri Matisse
“Art is not a thing; it is a way.”
― Elbert Hubbard
“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”
― Twyla Tharp
“There is no must in art because art is free.”
― Wassily Kandinsky
“You’re a creative person. So come up with a creative solution.”
― Darien Gee
“True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.”
― Albert Einstein
“Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz
“To be an artist is to believe in life.”
― Henry Moore
“A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.”
― Salvador Dali
“Art is everywhere, and everywhere is art.”
― Brandon Boyd
“Every child has the spirit of creation. The rubbish of life often exterminates the spirit through plague and a soul’s own wretchedness.”
― Peter Paul Rubens
“The beauty of art is that it allows you to slow down, and for a moment, things that once seemed unfamiliar become precious to you.”
― Kehinde Wiley
“Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing.”
― Marc Chagall
“Art is a line around your thoughts.”
― Gustav Klimt
Quotes About the Power of Art
Now, let’s explore the nature of art and its mind-blowing purpose. These powerful quotes might make your head spin faster than Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” But don’t worry if your brain starts doing mental cartwheels — that’s just the power of art working its magic. Who knows? You might even turn your grocery list into a conceptual art piece.
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
― Edgar Degas
“Painting is the passage from the chaos of the emotions to the order of the possible.”
― Balthus
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”
― Aristotle
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
― Thomas Merton
“Art is either plagiarism or revolution.”
― Paul Gauguin
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”
― Francis Bacon
“Art is the daughter of freedom.”
― Friedrich Schiller
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
― Pablo Picasso
“Art hurts. Art urges voyages — and it is easier to stay at home.”
― Gwendolyn Brooks
“Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.”
― Stella Adler
“I believe art is utterly important. It is one of the things that could save us.”
― Mary Oliver
“For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity or perception to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
― Albert Einstein in The World As I See It
“Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.”
― Pablo Picasso
“Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change — it can not only move us, it makes us move.”
― Ossie Davis
“I wanted to start a revolution, using art to build the sort of society I myself envisioned.”
― Yayoi Kusama
“Art is the stored honey of the human soul.”
― Theodore Dreiser
“Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing.”
― Marc Chagall
“Great art picks up where nature ends.”
― Marc Chagall
“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”
― Leonardo da Vinci
“The great artists of the past were aware that human life is full of chaos and suffering. But they had a remedy for this. And the name of that remedy was ‘beauty’. The beautiful work of art brings consolation in sorrow and affirmation in joy. It shows human life to be worthwhile.”
― Roger Scruton
“Art is the proper task of life.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
“Art is essentially the affirmation, the blessing, and the deification of existence.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Quotes About Art as Self-Expression
Get ready to unleash your inner child of creativity! The following collection of quotes is a wild ride through a kaleidoscope of artistic self-expression. Just remember: if anyone gives you crazy looks, tell them you’re not weird, you’re just “avant-garde.”
“Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”
― Pablo Picasso
“If I could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.”
― Edward Hopper
“The chief enemy of creativity is ‘good’ sense.”
― Pablo Picasso
“Never worry about being obsessive. I like obsessive people. Obsessive people make great art.”
― Susan Sontag
“I think of art as the highest level of creativity. To me, it is one of the greatest sources of enjoyment.”
― David Rockefeller
“Color is my day-long obsession, joy, and torment.”
― Claude Monet
“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live only as you can.”
― Neil Gaiman
“Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.”
― Clive Barker in Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War
“A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.”
― Michelangelo
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
― Maya Angelou
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.”
― Pablo Picasso
“Art is man’s expression of his joy in labor.”
― Henry Kissinger
“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”
― Henry Ward Beecher
“Art is born of humiliation.”
― W. H. Auden
“I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.”
― Frida Kahlo
“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
“The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity.”
― Douglas Horton
“I invent nothing, I rediscover.”
― Auguste Rodin
“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”
― Ray Bradbury
“What marks the artist is his power to shape the material of pain we all have.”
― Lionel Trilling
“Art is about building a new foundation, not just laying something on top of what’s already there.”
― Prince
“Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.”|
― Jackson Pollock
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
― Henry David Thoreau
“Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.”
― Paul Klee
“What keeps my heart awake is colorful silence.”
― Claude Monet
Quotes About an Artist’s Journey
Want to take a rollercoaster ride through an artist’s tumultuous, exhilarating, and sometimes paint-splattered journey? These art quotes will remind you that even the greats started somewhere — probably doodling in the margins of their math homework. So next time you find yourself sketching instead of taking notes, remember that you’re in good company.
“I like to pretend that my art has nothing to do with me.”
― Roy Lichtenstein
“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will.”
― George Bernard Shaw
“Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get the work done. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you’re not going to make an awful lot of work.”
― Chuck Close
“I dream of painting, and then I paint my dream.”
― Vincent Van Gogh
“I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn’t impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.”
― Anais Nin
“We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”
― Bob Ross
“Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.”
― Eugene Delacroix
“Every artist was first an amateur.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.”
― Leonardo da Vinci
“An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will.”
― Willem de Kooning
“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”
― Leonardo da Vinci
Short Art Captions for Instagram
Looking to spice up your Instagram feed with some artsy wisdom? Well, you’re in luck! I’ve curated a collection of snappy art captions that are perfect for pairing with your latest masterpiece. In fact, these bite-sized quips are so catchy, they might just make your followers think you’re the next Banksy — even if your art skills are more “kindergarten finger painting” than “street art sensation”.
- A little paint, a lot of passion
- Art brings dreams to life
- Art doesn’t need to make sense, it just needs to be felt
- Art is my way of turning chaos into beauty
- Art is the language of the soul
- Art is where I find my balance
- Coloring the world, one canvas at a time
- Create what your heart speaks
- Creativity thrives where there are no limits
- Each piece of art holds a little piece of me
- Embracing the colors of life
- Every canvas is a new adventure
- Every masterpiece begins with a single stroke
- Expressing myself without words
- Expressing feelings through every shade and hue
- Finding beauty in every stroke
- Imagination has no limits
- In a world full of noise, I find peace in art
- Inspiration is everywhere
- Letting my imagination run wild
- Let your creativity flow like a river
- Let your passion paint the canvas
- Life is an art. Paint your dreams.
- Lost in the colors, found in the strokes
- My hands are covered in paint, but my heart is full
- Painting my heart out
- The beauty of art is in the details
- The canvas doesn’t judge, it just listens
- The window to my soul
- When in doubt, add more color
What is Your Favorite Art Quote?
Which of these quotes makes you feel like picking up a paintbrush and creating a masterpiece? Is one of your favorite quotes or captions about art missing from this list? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
