The journal
A curated selection from the Moniqs archive, newest first. More stories are being moved over from the original site.
Reflections · Reflection
“I paint ideas, not things. My intention is less to paint works that are pleasing to the eye than to suggest great thoughts which will speak to the imagination and the heart and will arouse all that is noblest and best in man.” George Frederick Watts (1817-1904) Female Figure Pla
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Reflections · Reflection
“Color which, like music, is a matter of vibrations, reaches what is most general and therefore most indefinable in nature: its inner power.” ― Paul Gauguin A Seashore (Martinique), 1887 Paul Gauguin
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Reflections · Reflection
‘For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life – the air and the light, which vary continuously. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true val
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Reflections · Reflection
“A painting requires a little mystery, some vagueness, and some fantasy. When you always make your meaning perfectly plain you end up boring people” Edgar Degas The Dance Class (La Classe de Danse), 1873–1876 Edgar Degas, “Four Dancers,” 1899.
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Reflections · Reflection
“Painting, art in general, enchants me. It is my life. What else matters? When you put all your soul into a work, all that is noble in you, you cannot fail to find a kindred soul who understands you, and you do not need a host of such spirits. Is not that all an artist
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Reflections · Reflection
“I may honestly say that I have never consciously placed an idle touch upon canvas…” John Everett Millais (1829 – 1896) Ophelia, 1851-1852 Portrait of a Girl (Sophie Gray), 1857
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Reflections · Reflection
“What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show
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Reflections · Reflection
“…for whether we want to or not, we belong to our time and we share in its opinions, its feelings, even its delusions.” ― Henri Matisse Henri Matisse at work on his Cut-Outs at his home in Nice, 1953 Photo Paris Match via Getty Image Henri Matisse, The Reader, Marguerite Matisse
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Reflections · Reflection
“To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty! There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is without creating still more of them.” Pierre-Auguste Renoir Camille Monet and her son Jean in the Garden at Argenteuil, 1874. Pierre August
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Reflections · Reflection
“Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not…” Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Study for the Nurse in the Battleship Potemkin, 1957.
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Reflections · Reflection
“The ideal artist…retains his experience in a spirit of wonder and feeds it with creative lust.” George Wesley Bellows (1882-1925) A Day in June, 1913
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Reflections · Reflection
“I have the gift of neither the spoken nor the written word, especially if I have to say something about myself or my work. Whoever wants to know something about me -as an artist, the only notable thing- ought to look carefully at my pictures and try and see in them what I am and
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