When I finish a painting, it usually looks as surprising to me as to anyone else. Howard Hodgkin More Quotes by Howard Hodgkin More Quotes From Howard Hodgkin The only way an artist can communicate with the world at large is on the level of feeling. Howard Hodgkin communicationartistfeelings You keep on balancing and balancing and balancing until the picture wins, because then the subject's turned into the picture. Howard Hodgkin subjectswinning I am isolated as an artist, not as a person. Howard Hodgkin isolatedartistpersons I want my pictures to be things. I want them to be made up of marks that are physically and individually self-sufficient. Howard Hodgkin teamworkselfwant A lot of people... are afraid of pictures which have visible emotions in them. They feel calmer in front of pictures which are placid. Howard Hodgkin placidemotionpeople A painting is finished when the subject comes back, when what has caused the painting to be made comes back as an object. Howard Hodgkin back-whenpaintingmade I think words come between the spectator and the picture. Howard Hodgkin spectatorsthinking Passion lies between one mark and the next, and also within all of them. Howard Hodgkin nextpassionlying It is simply impossible to control a large painting with the edge in the same way that you can control a small one. Howard Hodgkin paintingimpossibleway To be a painter now is to be part of a very small, endangered species. Howard Hodgkin painterendangered-speciespainting Collecting has been my great extravagance. It's a way of being. I collect for the same reason that I eat too much-I'm one of nature's shoppers. Howard Hodgkin extravagancetoo-muchway I look at my pictures, and I think, 'Well, how did I do that? Howard Hodgkin wellslooksthinking I don't look at the work of my contemporaries very much; I tend to look at pictures by dead artists. It's much easier to get near their paintings. Howard Hodgkin paintingartistlooks The picture surface recedes just as much in the 20th century as it did in the 15th. The techniques of making pictures have hardly changed. Howard Hodgkin surfacecenturytechnique My pictures really finish themselves. Howard Hodgkin finishing I dont think you can lightly paint a picture. Its an activity I take very seriously. Howard Hodgkin activitypaintthinking I never think that anything I do is courageous. Howard Hodgkin courageousthinking My friends tend to be writers. I think writers and painters are really all the same-we just sit in our rooms. Howard Hodgkin painterroomsthinking I'm vulnerable to criticism. Any artist is, because you work alone in your studio and, until recently, critics were the only way you'd get any feedback. Howard Hodgkin criticismartistway I am happy for people to talk about my pictures, but I wish devoutly that I was not expected to talk about them myself. Howard Hodgkin expectedwishpeople
