Walter J. Phillips

The play of sunlight is amusement enough for a lazy man...

— Walter J. Phillips

Subject has the variety of life.

— Walter J. Phillips

Tradition is a prop for social security.

— Walter J. Phillips

Be content with nothing less than perfection.

— Walter J. Phillips

Rhythm is as necessary in a picture as pigment; it is as much a part of painting as of music.

— Walter J. Phillips

It is not in the nature of lenses to tell the whole truth. They are instruments of exaggeration and belittlement.

— Walter J. Phillips

Difficulties will assail you only when you lack in concentration and persistence.

— Walter J. Phillips

Colour is as variable and evanescent in the form of pigment as in visible nature.

— Walter J. Phillips

The character of the subject must influence the choice of the method of its representation.

— Walter J. Phillips

A mistake in drawing becomes difficult to detect when the eye is familiar with it.

— Walter J. Phillips

Beauty may be perceived in any scene by one with sympathy and understanding. Beauty is in the mind.

— Walter J. Phillips

Realism is condemned by those artists whose poverty of technique does not permit them to express it.

— Walter J. Phillips

While it is emotion that gives an impulse to the landscape painter, it is his style that inspires the critic's praise, and…

— Walter J. Phillips

While sincerity and over-anxiety can spoil a picture, through superfluous elaboration and unnecessary correction, the carelessness that would leave it in an…

— Walter J. Phillips

Not only does a lens distort forms, but the ordinary plate makes an unholy mess of colour in its tone relations. Yellow…

— Walter J. Phillips

The impression of wood-grain... must be considered, not only as regards texture and visibility, but for the occasional possibility of the expression…

— Walter J. Phillips

Many of the old masters of watercolour painted from notes, with enthusiasm either unabated or renewed. It is hard to assume the…

— Walter J. Phillips

The student's ambition should be to become a painter's painter, rather than a popular painter. The approbation of fellow artists based on…

— Walter J. Phillips

A horizontal or vertical line lacks energy, compared with one that deviates from either. The difference between these graphic expressions is the…

— Walter J. Phillips

There must be a judicious arrangement of all the parts. Considered conversely, the artist's task is to fill his panel with a…

— Walter J. Phillips

Every successful painter has worked hard. He cannot rest after having gained a certain degree of facility in drawing, and expect to…

— Walter J. Phillips

Some drawings are better than others... Some are utterly spoiled... I keep them all. I find a use sometimes even for the…

— Walter J. Phillips

Pseudo-critics prefer to direct their remarks to the artist - Heaven forgive them - but one due rather to a common impression…

— Walter J. Phillips

The painter who is so enamoured by the beauties of the parts of a landscape, that he strives to represent all, cannot…

— Walter J. Phillips

A beautiful feature in the colour wood-cut, and one unique in printing, is colour gradation... Two brushes are sometimes used, one charged…

— Walter J. Phillips

The portrait painter... If he insults his sitters his occupation is gone. Whether he paints the should instead of the features, or…

— Walter J. Phillips

Copying is an art in itself, demanding the greatest technical ability, especially in watercolour. However well done, the copy invariably lacks that…

— Walter J. Phillips

The public is the tribunal before which all art is judged - not the critics or the academies. The public is the…

— Walter J. Phillips

For an intelligent estimate of your technique go to another artist working in the same medium.

— Walter J. Phillips

Luminosity is a quality dependent as much on technique as on the physical properties of individual pigments.

— Walter J. Phillips

The beauty and wonders of nature are as alluring as the pursuit of Art, and made of me a landscape painter.

— Walter J. Phillips

The beauties of conception are always superior to those of expression.

— Walter J. Phillips

Water is the most expressive element in nature. It responds to every mood from tranquility to turbulence.

— Walter J. Phillips

The deserving are not always blest. That peculiar attribute known as personality is as potent a factor as genius.

— Walter J. Phillips

Beauty, pleasure, and the good things of life are intensified, and perhaps only exist, by reason of contrast.

— Walter J. Phillips

Many a painter has lived in affluence, in high esteem, who lacked the divine spark, and who is utterly forgotten to-day.

— Walter J. Phillips

Take away a painter's vanity, said a famous landscape painter, and he will never touch a pencil again.

— Walter J. Phillips

Humility counts for much, but it may be that vanity does not dispossess that admirable quality.

— Walter J. Phillips

The syllogism art for art's sake refers to that kind of painting which disregards, or is contrary to, public taste.

— Walter J. Phillips

The rewards of art are not always commensurate with its quality. It affords a precarious living.

— Walter J. Phillips