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«Impressionism Art Quotes

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Improvisation Art Quotes

23 art quotes about Improvisation | Submit more Improvisation art quotes

My idea for a painting might change as I apply more layers and I like that unpredictability. (Dion Archibald)

Never play a thing the same way twice. (Louis Armstrong)

- Peripheral Visions: Learning Along the Way...
The excitement of improvisation lies not only in the risk of being involved, but in the new ideas, as heady as the adrenaline of performance, that seems to come from nowhere. (Mary Catherine Bateson)

But no one, when you stop to think, has ever equated abstract expressionism as a movement with jazz music. It's based on improvisation. The rhythms, the personal involvement, all of this is part of the jazz experience. (Romare Bearden)

To work from nature is to improvise. (Georges Braque)

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed. (Charles Darwin)

Careful planning, and brilliant improvisation. (Sergi Eisenstein)

Painting is sometimes like those recipes where you do all manner of elaborate things to a duck, and then end up putting it on one side and only using the skin. (Lucian Freud)

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model. (Vincent van Gogh)

When working in stone and wood, one may begin carving an eagle and end up with a hummingbird. (Hap Hagood)

More of me comes out when I improvise. (Edward Hopper)

One mark on a canvas determines where the next one will go. (Daniel van Klei)

What matters most to me? To work with my model until I have it enough in me to be able to improvise, to let my hand run free... (Henri Matisse)

Improvisation is the expression of the accumulated yearnings, dreams, and wisdom of the soul. (Yehudi Menuhin)

If it comes out with a blue coat, I know that she must be the Virgin Mary; if it comes out with a beard, out of necessity it must be Saint Joseph; and if I try to paint a Venus and a splash of green comes out, I know I must paint a frog instead. (Anonymous Spanish painter)

We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. (Dolly Parton)

The artist needs to be open to radical changes and shifts in direction. Sticking to a prearranged plan for a painting can be deadly - you need to think on your feet; the muse moves fast. Art is caught in the moment after years of rehearsal. (Liz Reday)

The more you know, the more you can improvise. You do have to know what you are doing, but once you have the skills, you can make it up as you go along. (Charles Reid)

Ad-libbing is the product of many hours of work. (Richard Robinson)

One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment... If it doesn't turn out right, we can modify it as we go along. (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

-interview, Art of Watercolor, Dec, 2011...
My 'comfort zone' is not really having a clear idea of where I'm going, just as a musician who improvises can't tell you what he'll play in the next chorus. Hopefully some of that danger and excitement comes through in the finished work. (Nicholas Simmons)

-paraphrased by Chris Brubeck...
Composition is selective improvisation. (Igor Stravinsky)

It is a bad plan that admits of no modification. (Publilius Syrus)


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Editor: Robert Genn

Assistant Editor: Shawn Jackson

Associate Editors:

Scott Altman, Bonnie Austin, Karen Austin, Michele Becker, Joe Blodgett, Norman Brown, Alyce Bryson, Leanne Cadden, Penny Duane, Max Elliot, Derek Franklin, Sara Genn, Mardy Grothe, Harry Hartley, Sue Holland, Sue Legault, Tammy McManus, Eric Mewhinney, Bruce Miller, Laura Parrish, Andrea Pratt, Dan Roberts, Shirley Rochon, Gilbert Roy, John Sherlock, Victor Wong,
And many others who have so far contributed one quote or a few. Please join us and add more at

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Last modified: June 18, 2013