Inspiration

You will find here a few quotes by artists that I admire. All the photos below are by me, one of my favorites being this incredible sunset over Germany as I was flying home to Hamburg… Feeling the Light.

Words by famous painters that I admire

Claude Monet
French painter (14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926)

  • Je dois peut-être aux fleurs d’avoir été peintre – I perhaps owe to flowers the fact that I became a painter

Georgia o’Keefe
 American painter (15. November 1887 – 6 March 1985)

  • The inspiration is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can clarify in paint
  • I found I could say things with colors that I couldn’t say in any other way – things I had no words for
  • To create one’s own world, in any of the arts, takes courage
  • I dislike cults and isms. I want to paint in terms of my own thinking and feeling.
  • I feel there is something unexplored of women that only a woman can explore.
  • When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for a moment. I want to give that world to someone else

Henri Matisse

French painter (31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954)

  • Il y a des fleurs partout pour qui veut bien les voir – There are flowers everywhere for those who want to see them
  • La couleur surtout et peut-être plus encore que le dessin est une libération – Colour above all and maybe more than drawing is a liberation
  • Toute sa vie l’on doit être un enfant – All of one’s life, one must be a child
  • Un ton n’est qu’une couleur, deux tons c’est un accord, c’est la vie – A tone is only a colour, two tones it’s a chord, it’s life

Jackson Pollock
American painter (28 January 1912 – 11 August 1956)

  • I want to express my feelings, not illustrate them
  • Art is coming face to face with yourself
  • The modern artist, it seems to me, is working and expressing an inner world in other words – expressing the energy, the motion and other inner forces.
  • I don’t paint nature. I am nature.
  • The painting has a life of its own. I let it come through.
  • Painting is a state of being.

Marc Chagall
French painter of Russian-Jewish origin (24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985)

  • J’ai choisi la peinture parce qu’elle m’était autant nécessaire que la nourriture, Elle me semblait être une fenêtre par laquelle je pouvais m’envoler dans un autre monde. – I chose to paint because it was to me as necessary as food, it seemed to be a window through which I could take off into an other world
  • Si toute vie va inévitablement vers sa fin, nous devons durant la nôtre, la colorier avec nos couleurs d’amour et d’espoir. – If each life goes inexorably towards its end, we must during ours, colour it with our colours of love and hope.

Paul Cézanne
French painter (19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906)

  • Celui qui n’a pas le goût de l’absolu se contente d’un médiocrité tranquille – He who does not have a taste of the absolute is content with a quiet mediocrity
  • L’approbation des autres est un stimulant dont il est bon quelquefois de se méfier – Approval from others is a stimulant that one should sometimes be wary of

Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke is a German poet (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926). I have included below three of his poems that I find particularly moving. If you are inspired by these, you will find the original texts in German here: http://rainer-maria-rilke.de. The English translations of his poetry below stems from The Project Gutenberg EBook of Poems, by Rainer Maria Rilke

ICH LEBE MEIN LEBEN
Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringe,
die sich über die Dinge ziehn.
Ich werde den letzten vielleicht nicht vollbringen,
aber versuchen will ich ihn.

Ich kreise um Gott, um den uralten Turm,
und ich kreise jahrtaunsendelang;
und ich weiß noch nicht: bin ich eine Falke, ein Sturm
Oder ein großer Gesang. 

I LIVE MY LIFE
I live my life in circles that grow wide
And endlessly unroll,
I may not reach the last, but on I glide
Strong pinioned toward my goal.

About the old tower, dark against the sky,
The beat of my wings hums,
I circle about God, sweep far and high
On through milleniums.
Am I a bird that skims the clouds along,
Or am I a wild storm, or a great song?

ERNSTE STUNDE
Wer jetzt weint irgendwo in der Welt,
ohne Grund weint in der Welt,
weint über mich.

Wer jetzt lacht irgendwo in der Nacht,
ohne Grund lacht in der Nacht,
lacht mich aus.

Wer jetzt geht irgendwo in der Welt,
ohne Grund geht in der Welt,
geht zu mir.

Wer jetzt stirbt irgendwo in der Welt,
ohne Grund stirbt in der Welt:
sieht mich an.

SILENT HOUR
Whoever weeps somewhere out in the world
Weeps without cause in the world
Weeps over me.

Whoever laughs somewhere out in the night
Laughs without cause in the night
Laughs at me.

Whoever wanders somewhere in the world
Wanders in vain in the world
Wanders to me.

Whoever dies somewhere in the world
Dies without cause in the world
Looks at me.

VORGEFÜHL
Ich bin wie eine Fahne von Fernen umgeben.
Ich ahne die Winde, die kommen, und muss sie leben,
während die Dinge unten sich noch nicht rühren:
die Türen schließen noch sanft, und in den Kaminen ist Stille;
die Fenster zittern noch nicht, und der Staub ist noch schwer.

Da weiß ich die Stürme schon und bin erregt wie das Meer.
Und breite mich aus und falle in mich hinein
und werfe mich ab und bin ganz allein
in dem großen Sturm.

PRESAGING
I am like a flag unfurled in space,
I scent the oncoming winds and must bend with them,
While the things beneath are not yet stirring,
While doors close gently and there is silence in the chimneys
And the windows do not yet tremble and the dust is still heavy—

Then I feel the storm and am vibrant like the sea
And expand and withdraw into myself
And thrust myself forth and am alone in the great storm.