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The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence.

There are two things in the painter, the eye and the mind; each of them should aid the other.

The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself.

Basically, an artist should be a mirror, or a reflection of society or his or her environment. What you see is what you can articulate.

I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint? It might be things, thoughts, a memory, sensations, which have nothing to do directly with painting itself. They can come from anything and anywhere.

A painter may be looking at the world in a way which is very different from everyone else. If he's a craftsman, he can get other people to see the world through his eyes, and so he enlarges our vision, perception, and there's great value in that.

The painter must enclose himself within his work; he must respond not with words, but with paintings.

The mirror is a powerful tool because it forces you to deal with yourself on a deeper level. Conceptually, paintings are like mirrors. They're an expression from the artist: 'This is how I view the world - I'm presenting it to you.'

The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen.