Too much reality in a picture is always a disappointment to the imaginative soul. We love suggestion and not hard facts. — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
Do not be afraid that too much labour over the composition is going to kill the spontaneity. Those who absorb and digest their experiences are, of a sudden, mountains of strength and can produce pictures with spontaneous start and finish. — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
We must not imitate the externals of nature with so much fidelity that the picture fails to evoke that wonderful teasing recurrence of emotion… — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
You will learn to paint trees only by understanding them, their growth, their nature, their movement - and realizing that they are conscious living… — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
A work of art in paint should be beautiful and expressive as abstract colour and form and should not interest us necessarily in any… — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
The great paintings are the ones with the most subtle value relationships. The closer you could bring your values and still distinguish between them,… — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
Art is a thing so much of the imagination, of the soul, that it is difficult to descend to the fundamentals of technique and… — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
Good colour really means good taste; and 'powerful' colour means a reserve, to give a climax its full force, and not 'red, white, and… — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
If you're going to paint from photos, make sure you've painted for at least ten years. — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
Clouds are fascinating to paint because they are the only element in a landscape that possesses free movement. — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
Trust your feelings entirely about colour, and then, even if you arrive at no infallible colour theory, you will at least have the credit… — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
This art of conservation is strength, and makes the masterpiece a masterpiece. Otherwise, the man who simply brought all the different colors obtainable, and… — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
The eye and soul are caressed in the contemplation of form and colour. The subtle changes of colour over a surface - transitions that… — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
It is a curious fact that out-of-door nature is to the beginner an enormously overloaded 'property room.' He sees, for instance, the myriad of… — John F. Carlson Copy Share Image
