„He paints for the blind, and we are the blind, and he lets us see for sure what we saw long ago but weren't sure we saw.“

„Painting is an eye, a blinded eye that continues to see, and sees what blinds it.... this tiny little thing, which is nothing, which dominates life.“

—  Bram van Velde Dutch painter 1895 - 1981

short quotes, 31 October 1966; p. 58
1960's

„I saw Guillaumin. We went to look at my two latest paintings which were bought by Durand. All he said was 'there's no firmness in the foreground'. It was evening, we were seeing the paintings by gas-light, which neutralized the orange tones. As Seurat says, what they [the Impressionists]] look for is thick impasto; but at Clauzet's I saw a Guillaumin, also in the evening, and it looked made of tar, so much shellac was used at the base of this painting, which in my view is really old stuff; it must be admitted that he made an effort to tighten the design but then the harmonies are insignificant and lack logic - there is no drawing, there is a flurry of colors, but no modeling; it is one step from [w: Jules Dupré|Jules Dupreé]] - modernized.“

—  Camille Pissarro French painter 1830 - 1903

Quote of Pissarro, in a letter, Paris, 6 December 1886, to his son Lucien; in Camille Pissarro - Letters to His Son Lucien ed. John Rewald, with assistance of Lucien Pissarro; from the unpublished French letters; transl. Lionel Abel; Pantheon Books Inc. New York, second edition, 1943, p. 84
1880's

„In other words, the listener’s own picture was painted in the shining coulours St Odhran provided. By seeing what they wished, they also saw what he wished them to see. “They are the Orchestra,” he had told me earlier, “and I am merely the Conductor.”“

—  Michael Moorcock, livro The City in the Autumn Stars

Fonte: The City in the Autumn Stars (1986), Chapter 6 (p. 269)

„We look at the mountain to see the painting, then we look at the painting to see the mountain.“

—  Mark Tobey American abstract expressionist painter 1890 - 1976

Fonte: 1950's, In: Reminiscence and Reverie, 1951, p. 231

„He [ Manet ] begged me to go straight up and see his painting [ 'Le Balcon'] - Berthe was model for this painting], as he was rooted to the spot. I've never seen anyone in such a state, one minute he was laughing, the next insisting his picture was dreadful; in the next breath, sure it would be a huge success.“

—  Berthe Morisot painter from France 1841 - 1895

quote from Berthe Morisot to her sister Edma Morisot, after visiting the Salon of Paris in 1869; as cited in The Correspondence of Berthe Morisot, with her family and friends, Denish Rouart with Adler and Garb; Camden Press London 1984, pp. 33-34
1860 - 1870

„1597. For whom does the blind Man's Wife paint her self?“

—  Thomas Fuller (writer) British physician, preacher, and intellectual 1654 - 1734

Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1736) : Why does the blind man's wife paint herself?
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

„Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.“

—  William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Helena, Act I, scene i.
Variante: Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind".
Fonte: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)

„I see less and less... I need to avoid lateral light, which darkens my colors. Nevertheless, I always paint at the times of day most propitious for me, as long as my paint tubes and brushes are not mixed up.... I will paint almost blind, as Beethoven composed completely deaf.“

—  Claude Monet French impressionist painter 1840 - 1926

Quote, Jan. 1921, to journalist Marcel Pays. Monet in the 20th Century, by Paul Hayes Tucker.
1920 - 1926

„If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse… but surely you will see the wildness!“

—  Pablo Picasso Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer 1881 - 1973

„The artist should not only paint what he sees before him, but also what he sees in himself. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also refrain from painting what he sees before him.“

—  Caspar David Friedrich Swedish painter 1774 - 1840

Quote from "The Awe-Struck Witness" in TIME magazine (28 October 1974) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,908926-1,00.html and in "On the Brink: The Artist and the Seas" by Eldon N. Van Liere in Poetics of the Elements in the Human Condition: The Sea (1985) ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka
Variant translations:
The artist should not only paint what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also omit to paint that which he sees before him.
As quoted in German Romantic Painting (1994) by William Vaughan, p. 68
undated
Contexto: The artist should not only paint what he sees before him, but also what he sees in himself. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also refrain from painting what he sees before him. Otherwise his pictures will be like those folding screens behind which one expects to find only the sick or the dead.

„When we read what Goethe says about men we are ashamed of what we have said; when we read what he says about painting and statues we are ashamed of what Goethe has said.“

—  Randall Jarrell poet, critic, novelist, essayist 1914 - 1965

“Malraux and the Statues at Bamberg”, p. 194
A Sad Heart at the Supermarket: Essays & Fables (1962)

„You can't make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can't make a perfect painting.“

—  Agnes Martin American artist 1912 - 2004

interview with Joan Simon, 1995 in Perfection is in the Mind, p. 86; as quoted in A House Divided: American Art Since 1955, Anne M. G. Wagner, Univ. of California Press, 2012, p. 263
1980 - 2000

„Sometimes artist like to catch themselves looking out, let the world see them for once. It's a signature. This one is a very bold one. But this is also a witnessing. We want to remember, and we want to be remembered. That's why we paint.“

—  Maureen Johnson, livro 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Fonte: 13 Little Blue Envelopes

„The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen.“

—  Paul Valéry French poet, essayist, and philosopher 1871 - 1945

Mauvaises Pensées et Autres (1941)

„That we may know
Whether the devil doth his looks belie,
And if he is as ugly as we paint him.“

—  Francesco Berni Italian poet 1497 - 1535

LII, 1
Rifacimento of Orlando Innamorato

„Lueg and Palermo saw what was good, what was bad, in what I was painting. That became the basis of our relationship, that we shared an idea, a sensibility. With Sigmar Polke, it was different. Our relationship was based on being outrageous. I have difficulties with his work. He [Polke] refuses all values and criteria, and for that reason I could never talk to him seriously. He refuses to accept any borders, any limits.“

—  Gerhard Richter German visual artist, born 1932 1932

after 2000

„I was encouraged to look around me and to paint what I saw. I painted my story, and it had a lot of angles to it. I was trying to explain how I saw life as a black person living in America, and I put things together that were not acceptable. A lot of people did not want these kind of paintings representing America in any sense, but I wanted to tell my story and what I saw…“

—  Faith Ringgold American artist 1930

On the Civil Rights Movement puncturing the image of the American Dream in https://www.theartnewspaper.com/interview/faith-ringgold-discusses-civil-rights-and-children-s-books-ahead-of-solo-serpentine-gallery-show in The Art Newspaper (2019 Jun 5)

„I met Beckett at my brother’s [ w:Geert van Velde, also an abstract painter] place. That was a Big meeting [circa 1938, in Paris], in capital letters. It was before war started, life was still normal. That time I was very lonely. We saw each other often. Before the war he had published already something, but his fame came in 1953. We never spoke about his work. He was a taciturn man. Sometimes a word escaped from his mouth. Sure, a word you would never forget. It would stick in your head… This friendship with Beckett is the most important experience in my life. He was fully alive for my way of working. What he could express in words, I did with my paintings.“

—  Bram van Velde Dutch painter 1895 - 1981

About his contact with Beckett in Paris, before and during World War 2.
1970's
Fonte: article "Schilder Bram van Velde in Dordrecht," in: NRC Handelsblad by Paul Groot, 1979 (English translation: Charlotte Burgmans)

„Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.“

—  John Ruskin English writer and art critic 1819 - 1900