paint all day

"Oil Painting Techniques and Materials" by Harold Speed
Introduction excerpts

"Art at its best lifts the veil that obscures reality in things seen, and gives us a glimpse of things more harmonious and permanent than the fleeting images that pass upon our retina".

"The influence upon our actions of the subconscious mental activity that goes on within us is very important, and it is undoubtedly from this source that the artist draws his main impetus to creative work".

"The genius is the man whose subconscious is continually bubbling with a rich stream of matter that he is the means of expressing".

"These moments of inspiration, as they may be called, in which the subconscious and conscious work in perfect harmony, come more frequently when at work than when idling, and seldom come to those who wait for them".

"The painter builds up his technical facility and develops his perceptions by laborious training, fully conscious of what he is doing, but when he comes to doing good work, his conscious mind is centered on what he is trying to express".

"No school teaching can take the place of the natural impulse which must develop from within".

"And it may well be that in those uncharted regions of the mind, are perceptions and faculties whose scope immensely transcends that of our ordinary consciousness. Perceptions that are not amenable to the narrow process of conscious expression, but that may find an outlet in the wider scope offered by intuitive artistic expression".

"It is this capacity for subconscious working that is meant, when it is said that an artist is born, not made. No amount of teaching will give this faculty".

"As it is only those you cannot discourage who are worth encouraging".

"If one is too exquisite about the means of expression, one often ends by expressing nothing in particular".

"It is only when what can be taught, is working in perfect harmony with what cannot be taught, that a work of art results".