Degas, Monet, Van Gogh Quotes

A tip of my hat tonight to the artists we'll be seeing tomorrow at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston exhibit, Impressionists/Post Impressionists, on loan from the National Gallery of Art.  And, a few quotes.

'A picture is something which requires as much knavery, trickery and deceit as the perpetration of a crime.' - Edgar Degas

'Ah, gentlemen, I don’t receive when I’m working, no, I don’t receive.  When I’m working, if I’m interrupted, it just finishes me, I’m lost.  You’ll understand, I’m sure, that I’m chasing the merest sliver of colour.  It’s my own fault, I want to grasp the intangible.  It’s terrible how the light runs out, taking colour with it.  Colour, any colour, lasts a second, sometimes three or four minutes at most.  What to do, what to paint in three or four minutes?  They’re gone, you have to stop.  Ah, how I suffer, how painting makes me suffer!  It tortures me.  The pain it causes me!' - Claude Monet

'If you hear a voice within you saying, “You are not a painter,” then by all means paint, boy, and that voice will be silenced.' - Vincent Van Gogh

'Drawing sketches is like planting seeds in order to get pictures later.' - Van Gogh

It's going to be a great exhibit.  The Impressionist painters show in person like they can't possibly show in reproductions.  I'll give you my report.