Charles Webster Hawthorne Quotes

#1. Realize the value of putting down your first impression quickly.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#2. Paint what you see, not what you know.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#3. The mechanics of putting one spot of color next to another, that is the fundamental thing.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#4. It is so much better to make a big thing out of a little subject than to make a little thing out of a big one.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#5. Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision it is the seeing of the thing that makes it so.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#6. There is an aesthetic excitement about painting which is one of the most beautiful experiences that can be. Put things down while you feel that joy.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#7. Keep this little canvas, it is a promise for the future. When I say 'keep this canvas,' I mean for the influence on yourself. When one does a good thing, it's well to keep it to show how foolish we are at other times.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#8. Do not let it look as if you reasoned too much. Painting must be impulsive to be worth while.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#9. The ring, the call, the surprise, the shock that you have out-of-doors - be always looking for the unexpected in nature, do not settle to a formula.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#10. Each day has its own individuality of color.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#11. Study continuously, developing yourself into a better person, more sensitive to things in nature. Spend years in getting ready.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#12. Try to do ugly things so that you make them beautiful ... The more delicate the thing is in nature the more one must look for the solemn note. Color in nature is never pretty, it's beautiful.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#13. To see things simply is the hardest thing in the world.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#14. Have as much fun as you can and don't feel that the edge of your canvas confines you - let your vision go right on.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#15. Spend a lifetime in hard work with a humble mind.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#16. The value of a canvas depends almost entirely on your mental attitude, not on your moral attitude; depends on what kind of a man you are, the way you observe.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#17. Be humble about it. Paint the color tones as they come against each other, and make them sing, vibrate. Don't ask me to look at those self-satisfied, pretty things.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#18. In his attempt to develop the beauty he sees, the artist develops himself.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#19. Get into the habit of doing what you see, not what you know. Human reason cannot foresee the accidents of out-of-doors.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#20. If you look into the past of the successful painter you will find square miles of canvas behind him.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#21. The successful painter is continually painting still life.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#22. Painting is just like making an after-dinner speech. If you want to be remembered, say one thing and stop.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#23. Put off finish as it takes a lifetime - wait until later to try to finish things - make a lot of starts.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#24. Avoid distant views, paint objects close up. If the foreground is well done the distance will take care of itself.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#25. Swing a bigger brush - you don't know what you're missing.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#26. It is so hard and long before a student comes to a realization that these [first] few large simple spots in right relations are the most important things in the study of painting. They are the fundamentals of all painting.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#27. See what you can do with your daring with color and your ignorance mixed with it.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#28. Paint with freedom. It gives you more mastery of the nature of paint.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#29. We must all teach ourselves to be fine, to be poets.

Charles Webster Hawthorne

#30. Do studies, not pictures. Know when you are licked - start another. Be alive, stop when your interest is lost.

Charles Webster Hawthorne