I'd been taught to paint like other people, and I thought, what's the use? I couldn't do any better than they, or even as well. I was just adding to the brushpile. So I quit. Georgia O'Keeffe More Quotes by Georgia O'Keeffe More Quotes From Georgia O'Keeffe I know I can not paint a flower, I can not paint the sun on the desert on a bright summer morning but maybe in terms of paint colour I can convey to you my experience of the flower or the experience that makes the flower of significance to me at that particular time. Georgia O'Keeffe flowersummermorning I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to. Georgia O'Keeffe foolpaintstupid I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at - not copy it. Georgia O'Keeffe copiesflowerart It was all so far away - there was quiet and an untouched feel to the country and I could work as I pleased. Georgia O'Keeffe flowerquietcountry He wanted head and hands and arms on a pillow - in many different positions. I was asked to move my hands in many different ways - also my head - and I had to turn this way and that. There were nudes that might have been of several different people - sitting - standing - even standing upon the radiator against the window - that was difficult - radiators don't intend you to stand on top of them. (On being photographed by Alfred Stieglitz) Georgia O'Keeffe handspeoplemoving Since I cannot sing, I paint. Georgia O'Keeffe paintartist His letters ... have been like fine cold water when you are terribly thirsty. Georgia O'Keeffe coldletterswater School and things that painters have taught me even keep me from painting as I want to. I decided I was a very stupid fool not to be at least paint as I wanted to and say what I wanted to when I painted as that seemed to be the only thing I could do that didn't concern anybody but myself. I found that I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't say in any other way things that I had no words for. Georgia O'Keeffe shapesstupidschool I got half-a-dozen paintings from that shattered plate. Georgia O'Keeffe creativityhalfacceptance The simple fact of yourself... there it is... just you... no excitement about it... a very simple fact... the only thing you have... keep it as clear as you can. Georgia O'Keeffe egosimplefacts Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. A hill or tree cannot make a good painting just because it is a hill or tree. It is lines and colors put together so that they may say something. Georgia O'Keeffe colortreeart It was in the 1920s, when nobody had time to reflect, that I saw a still-life painting with a flower that was perfectly exquisite, but so small you really could not appreciate it. Georgia O'Keeffe appreciateflowerart It always seems to me that so few people live - they just seem to exist and I don't see any reason why we shouldn't live always - til we die physically. Georgia O'Keeffe diesreason-whypeople I find that I have painted my life, things happening in my life - without knowing. After painting the shell and shingle many times, I did a misty landscape of the mountain across the lake, Georgia O'Keeffe knowinglakeslong The abstraction is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can clarify in paint. Georgia O'Keeffe paintformart It seems to be my mission in life to wait on a dog. Georgia O'Keeffe missionsdogwaiting One can't paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt. Georgia O'Keeffe flowernew-yorkart When I found the beautiful white bones in the desert I picked them up and took them home too...I have used these things to say what is to me the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it. Georgia O'Keeffe whitehomebeautiful The clean clear colours were in my head. But one day as I looked at the brown burned wood of the Shanty, I thought 'I can paint one of those dismal-coloured paintings like the men. I think just for fun I will try - all low-toned and dreary with the tree besides the door.' In my next show, 'The Shanty' went up. The men seemed to approve of it. They seemed to think that maybe I was beginning to paint. That was my only low-toned dismal-coloured painting. Georgia O'Keeffe funmenthinking Anyone who doesn't feel the crosses simply doesn't get that country. Georgia O'Keeffe flowercrossescountry
