Simultaneous contrast is not just a curious optical phenomenon – it is the very heart of painting. Repeated experiments with adjacent colors will show that any ground subtracts its own hue from the colors which it carries and therefore influences. (Josef Albers)
The Unnamable,1954... How all becomes clear and simple when one opens an eye on the within, having of course previously exposed it to the without, in order to benefit by the contrast. (Samuel Beckett)
Some forms in nature or in its states of transition are torn, others spongy, still others powdery... Take such varied contrasts and project them onto a flat surface, whether in a 'composition' or as handwritten notes accidentally jotted down. (Julius Bissier)
Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence. (William Blake)
Contrast warm to cool. Make color sing, ring like a bell. Work from big to small. (Sergei Bongart)
It is the contrast of thinly applied darks sitting next to impasto lights that gives the effect of transparency and bouncing light. (Gail Boyle)
You have to be aware of all the latent possibilities that give a work its special character – its atmosphere, its moods, its contrasts. (Alfred Brendel)
We all operate in two contrasting modes, which might be called open and closed. The open mode is more relaxed, more receptive, more exploratory, more democratic, more playful and more humorous. The closed mode is the tighter, more rigid, more hierarchical, more tunnel-visioned. Most people, unfortunately, spend most of their time in the closed mode. (John Cleese)
In the canvas of life, a flat landscape would be pretty boring. It is the valleys and the mountains that help us to appreciate the flatlands. It is the dark that makes us appreciate the light, and the cold that makes us appreciate the warm. (Anne Copeland)
In any painting a hard edge is harder and a soft one softer in the presence of the other. (Warren Criswell)
When values are contrasting, use subtle color. When values are subtle, use contrasting color. (Harvey Dunn)
There's a profound effect of black line against washes of colour. (Vicki Easingwood)
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing. (T. S. Eliot)
Be sure that you don't lose the sharp edges, the contrasts in temperature and value – everything that supports this as a structure that exists in space. (Gay Faulkenberry)
To emphasize something means that the other parts of a picture must be muted. (Irwin Greenberg)
A Curve does not exist in its full power until contrasted with a straight line. (Robert Henri)
The yin and yang of stark contrasts create a notion of a fine balance. (Valerie Kent)
I organize the opposition between colors, lines and curves. I set curves against straight lines, patches of color against plastic forms, pure colors against subtly nuanced shades of gray. (Fernand Leger)
Nothing is anything by itself, only in relation to other things. (Robert Levers)
-character Ishmael... Truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. (Herman Melville)
Where there is no difference, there is only indifference. (Louis Nizer)
Contrasting color is the best means of capturing and incorporating the dramatic effects of light in a painting. (Desmond O'Hagan)
A common problem for beginners is their fear of bold contrast. The decision to reduce tonal range in this way is a misguided attempt to draw attention away from any errors. It only robs the work of vitality and depth. (Janine Parsons)
Beauty, pleasure, and the good things of life are intensified, and perhaps only exist, by reason of contrast. (Walter J. Phillips)
The realization that reason and anti-reason, sense and nonsense, design and chance, consciousness and unconsciousness, belong together as necessary parts of a whole - this was the central message of Dada. (Hans Richter)
The most beautiful composition can be dashed by improper use of color and contrast. Composition, Light source, Contrast. (CJ Rider)
Combine the extremes, and you will have the true center. (Friedrich Von Schlegel)
By merely increasing or decreasing the amount of contrast in any area we can move the observer through the painting. (Mike Svob)
Contrasting color temperatures are as important as value contrasts. (Zoltan Szabo)
Everything we do is either an act of love or a cry for help. (Marianne Williamson)
Transparency painted in a picture produces its effect in a different way than opaqueness. (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
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