Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see. Philip Guston More Quotes by Philip Guston More Quotes From Philip Guston Studio Ghosts: When you're in the studio painting, there are a lot of people in there with you - your teachers, friends, painters from history, critics... and one by one if you're really painting, they walk out. And if you're really painting YOU walk out. Philip Guston teacher inspirational art Frustration is one of the great things in art. Satisfaction is nothing. Philip Guston frustration satisfaction art You know, comments about style always seem strange to me - 'why do you work in this style, or in that style' - as if you had a choice in the matter... What you're doing is trying to stay alive and continue and not die. Philip Guston style choices trying Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see. 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. Philip Guston magic artist memories Painting and sculpture are very archaic forms. It's the only thing left in our industrial society where an individual alone can make something with not just his own hands, but brains, imagination, heart maybe. Philip Guston imagination heart hands We are image-makers and image-ridden... We work until we vanish. Philip Guston makers artist Usually I am on a work for a long stretch, until a moment arrives when the air of the arbitrary vanishes, and the paint falls into positions that feel destined. Philip Guston air long fall There's some mysterious process at work here, which I don't even want to understand. Philip Guston serendipity mysterious want The painting is not on a surface, but on a plane which is imagined. It moves in a mind. It is not there physically at all. It is an illusion, a piece of magic, so that what you see is not what you see. Philip Guston magic mind moving It is possible to make a living thing, not a diagram of what I have been thinking: to posit with paint something living, something that changes each day. Philip Guston paint each-day thinking I have a studio in the country - in the woods - but my paintings look more real to me than what is outdoors. You walk outside; the rocks are inert; even the clouds are inert. It makes me feel a little better. But I do have a faith that it is possible to make a living thing, not a diagram of what I have been thinking: to posit with paint something living, something that changes each day. Philip Guston nature real country Look at any inspired painting. It's like a gong sounding; it puts you in a state of reverberation. Philip Guston painting excellence looks Painting seems like some kind of peculiar miracle that I need to have again and again. Philip Guston miracle peculiar needs Then you learn about composition, you learn about old masters, you form certain ideas about structure. But the inhuman activity of trying to make some kind of jump or leap, where , the painting is always saying, 'What do you want from me? I can only be a painting.' You have to go from part to part, but you shouldn't see yourself go from part to part, that's the whole point. Philip Guston education trying ideas I am a night painter, so when I come into the studio the next morning the delirium is over. Philip Guston creativity morning night Do I really believe that? I make a mark, a few strokes, I argue with myself, not do I like or not, but is it true or not? Is that what I mean, is that what I want? Philip Guston want mean believe To paint is always to start at the beginning again, yet being unable to avoid the familiar arguments about what you see yourself painting. Philip Guston begin-again argument painting To will a new form is unacceptable, because will builds distortion. Desire, too, is incomplete and arbitrary. These strategies, however intimate they might become, must especially be removed to clear the way for something else. Philip Guston arbitrary desire might No good to paint in the head - what happens is what happens when you put the paint down - you can only hope that you are alert - ready - to see. What joy it is for paint to become a thing - a being. Believe in this miracle - it is your only hope. To will this transformation is not possible. Only a slow maturation can prepare the hand and eye to become quicker than ever. Ideas about art don't matter. They collapse anyway in front of the painting. Philip Guston eye believe art I'm not interested in painting; I'm not interested in making a picture. Then what the hell am I interested in? I must be interested in this process. Philip Guston painting hell process
