Thomas Rush
  • Paintings
    • Some Recent Paintings (including some still lifes)
    • Still Life Series 2019
    • Somewhat Recent Paintings
    • Harmony in Chaos Period
    • SF/Bolinas 2003–2006
    • France 2000–2002
    • Guadalajara Period 1991–1996
    • Some Early Paintings
    • Paintings: In Collections
  • Photography
  • On Making Art
  • About the Artist
  • Contact

On Making Art


The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things,
but their inward significance
. 
Aristotle


Don't change your art for your audience.
Change your audience.

TR


If I create from the heart, nearly everything works;
if from the head, almost nothing. 

Marc Chagall


Artistic creation proceeds by a series of destructions.
T. S. Eliot

I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else. 
Pablo Picasso


No great artist ever sees things as they really are.
If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
 
Oscar Wilde


If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint. 
Edward Hopper

The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel. 
Piet Mondrian


Thinking is more interesting than knowing,
but less interesting than looking.
 
Goethe


I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way—things I had no words for. 
Georgia O'Keefe


As far as I am concerned, a painting speaks for itself. What is the use of giving explanations when all is said and done?  
Pablo Picasso


Don’t think about making art, just get it done.  Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it.  While they are deciding, make even more art.
Andy Warhol


The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting. 
Vincent Van Gogh


There is something in painting which cannot be explained,
and that something is essential. 

Pierre Renoir


​We artists are driven towards personal lives nourished in these strange techniques of self-pursuit.
Lawrence Durrell (from Clea)
© 1976-2020 Thomas Rush. All rights reserved.
  • Paintings
    • Some Recent Paintings (including some still lifes)
    • Still Life Series 2019
    • Somewhat Recent Paintings
    • Harmony in Chaos Period
    • SF/Bolinas 2003–2006
    • France 2000–2002
    • Guadalajara Period 1991–1996
    • Some Early Paintings
    • Paintings: In Collections
  • Photography
  • On Making Art
  • About the Artist
  • Contact