One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.
Meaning of the quote
When an artist paints a city like New York, they don't just try to copy what they see. Instead, they try to capture the emotions and feelings they experience. The city has a unique energy and atmosphere that can't be fully captured by simply painting the buildings and streets. The artist must paint the city as they feel it, not just as they see it.
About Georgia O’Keeffe
Georgia O’Keeffe was an American modernist painter known for her meticulous paintings of natural forms, particularly flowers and desert landscapes. She gained international recognition and is considered the ‘Mother of American modernism’, with a career spanning seven decades.
More quotes from Georgia O’Keeffe
I believe I would rather have Stieglitz like something – anything I had done – than anyone else I know.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
Singing has always seemed to me the most perfect means of expression. It is so spontaneous. And after singing, I think the violin. Since I cannot sing, I paint.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
It was all so far away – there was quiet and an untouched feel to the country and I could work as I pleased.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
Marks on paper are free – free speech – press – pictures all go together I suppose.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
Anyone who doesn’t feel the crosses simply doesn’t get that country.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
To create one’s world in any of the arts takes courage.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I feel there is something unexplored about woman that only a woman can explore.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I often lay on that bench looking up into the tree, past the trunk and up into the branches. It was particularly fine at night with the stars above the tree.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
Sun-bleached bones were most wonderful against the blue – that blue that will always be there as it is now after all man’s destruction is finished.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
One can not be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
The days you work are the best days.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I said to myself, I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me – shapes and ideas so near to me – so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me – shapes and ideas so near to me – so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
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.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time – like to have a friend takes time.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at – not copy it.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality, I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say in paint.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I don’t very much enjoy looking at paintings in general. I know too much about them. I take them apart.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)
I hate flowers – I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t move.
American modernist artist (1887-1986)