Inspirational Art Quotes

Written by Joely Rogers

I confess…I am an absolute quote junkie. Quotes have been a source of enlightenment, comfort, and inspiration for me since I learned to read, and I have amassed a large, diverse collection of them over the years. One of the cool things about having a picture frame business is that I get to share my favorite ones related to art, creativity, and inspiration with a larger audience. Each week I choose a new quote for the sales receipts we send out to our customers and then create an image based on it for our social media. These are a few of my favorite art-related quotes with images. Feel free to share them.

1. "Every artist was first an amateur." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. "Creativity takes courage." - Henri Matisse

3. "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." - Thomas Merton

4. "The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls." - Pablo Picasso

5. "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." - Edgar Degas

6. "Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures." - Henry Ward Beecher

7. "The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work." - Emile Zola

8. "Art speaks where words are unable to explain." - Mathiole

9. "Art is the only way to run away without leaving home." - Twyla Tharp

10. "You don’t take a photograph, you make it." - Ansel Adams

11. "Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." - Banksy

12. "Painting is just another way of keeping a diary." - Pablo Picasso

13. "Art must be an integral part of the struggle. It can’t simply mirror what is taking place. It must go beyond it and be a living force of the revolution." - Amiri Baraka

14. "Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth." - Pablo Picasso

15. "Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious." - Oscar Wilde

16. "The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery." - Francis Bacon

17. "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." - Pablo Picasso

18. "To be an artist is to believe in life." - Henry Moore

19. "Art is not freedom from discipline, but disciplined freedom." - John F. Kennedy

20. "The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke." - Jerzy Kosinski