Too much reality in a picture is always a disappointment to the imaginative soul. We love suggestion and not hard facts.

- John F. Carlson

You will learn to paint trees only by understanding them, their growth, their nature, their movement - and realizing that they are conscious living t…

- John F. Carlson

The great paintings are the ones with the most subtle value relationships. The closer you could bring your values and still distinguish between them,…

- John F. Carlson

We must have design in a picture even at the expense of truth. You are using nature for your artistic needs.

- John F. Carlson

To the artist, the forest is an asylum of peace and dancing shadows.

- John F. Carlson

The eye and soul are caressed in the contemplation of form and colour. The subtle changes of colour over a surface - transitions that are like music …

- John F. Carlson

Good colour really means good taste; and 'powerful' colour means a reserve, to give a climax its full force, and not 'red, white, and blue all over.

- John F. Carlson

It is the ability to determine consciously what it is that interests him, and why, that differentiates the artist from the art student.

- John F. Carlson

The artist himself is often surprised at the finished work of art. He cannot tell 'how it happened', nor could he repeat the feat at someone's biddin…

- John F. Carlson