Paint the flying spirit of the bird rather than its feathers.
Interpretation
Focus on the essence and emotion of a subject rather than just its surface details.
This quote encourages artists and creators to capture the true spirit and energy of their subjects instead of getting lost in the minutiae. By emphasizing the 'flying spirit' of the bird, Henri suggests that the emotional and dynamic qualities of an object are far more important than its physical attributes.
In practice
In a workshop on painting, the instructor might say this quote to inspire students to express their unique perspectives.
Know what the old masters did. Know how they composed their pictures, but do not fall into the conventions they established. These conventions were right for them, and they are wonderful. They made their language. You make yours. All the past can help you.
The sketch hunter moves through life as he finds it, not passing negligently the things he loves, but stopping to know them, and to note them down in the shorthand of his sketchbook.
You form a society: that limits you. Adopt a name, and you've limited yourself again; draw up a constitution and bylaws and you've made a groove, a rut, that hampers your growth. You think you can fix your course and move straight along it. But sometimes the important thing is to strike out sidewise.
After all, the goal is not making art. It is living a life. Those who live their lives will leave the stuff that is really art.
Do not let the fact that things are not made for you, that conditions are not as they should be stop you. Go on anyway. Everything depends on those who go on anyway.
Drawing is not following a line on the model, it is drawing your sense of the thing.
Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.
Writers collect stories of rituals: John Cheever putting on a jacket and tie to go down to the basement, where he kept a desk near the boiler room. Keats buttoning up his clean white shirt to write in, after work.
Industry is best at the intersection of science and art.
As a young person, and I know itβs hard to believe that I was shy, but you could take your camera, and it would take you to places: it was like having a friend, like having someone to go out with and look at the world. I would do things with a camera I wouldnβt do normally if I was just by myself.
Fashion is everything that can pass fashionable
Playing and listening to music gives you a sense of fulfilment because you have to put everything in you at its disposal.
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