Drawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality.
Edgar DegasRead
Work a great deal at evening effects, lamplight, candlelight, etc. The intriguing thing is not to show the source of the light but the effect of the lighting.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Focus on how light influences the atmosphere rather than its source.
Edgar Degas emphasizes the importance of capturing the effects of light in art, particularly during evening hours. Rather than merely displaying the light source, artists should strive to convey how light transforms a scene and creates mood, inviting viewers to appreciate the subtleties of illumination and atmosphere in their work.
Themes
LightArtAtmosphereEveningEffect
In practice
Example use cases
An artist discussing their painting process in a gallery setting.
More from Edgar Degas
All quotes βNo art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and the study of the great masters.
Edgar DegasRead
Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.
Edgar DegasRead
It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.
Edgar DegasRead
The Dance instills in you something that sets you apart. Something heroic and remote.
Edgar DegasRead
You have to have a high conception, not of what you are doing, but of what you may do one day: without that, there's no point in working.
Edgar DegasRead
Similar quotes
A person who's only suffering can't write a poem. There are choices to be made, and you need to be objective.
Edward HirschRead
Donβt underestimate this gift of finding a place in the writing world: if you really work at describing creatively on paper the truth as you understand it, as you have experienced it, with the people or material who are in you, who are asking that you help them get written, you will come to a secret feeling of honor.
Anne LamottRead
Films to the degree that they glorify mindlessness and short attention span they are bad, to the degree that they encourage empathy with people not like ourselves and encourage us to think about life, they are good.
Roger EbertRead
Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn't write, I would stop breathing.
Paul AusterRead
A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too.
Franklin D. RooseveltRead
Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation.
Barack ObamaRead