Edgar Alwin Payne quotes:

Departure from the literal aspect, rather than mechanical exactness, is the code of the true artist. However, departures are the result of studied intent rather than inability.

To be original one needs to learn the ideas of other painters in order to be different from them.

Learning the art of painting is not an easy task. It takes a great deal of intelligence, keen analysis, study and practice.

The average artist, if he chooses, could render an exact drawing of what he sees. Artistic work not only allows but demands some deviation from form and line. Just how far this may go depends on the viewpoint of each painter.

Art comes into being in that abstract interval between a thought and reality, and no one - not even the artist who created it - can remeasure the influences that caused it.

The artist should always be the student.

The study of art is a lifetime matter. The best any artist can do is to accumulate all the knowledge possible of art and its principles, study nature often and then practice continually.

The pleasure derived from viewing the achievements of others, coupled with a true appreciation of nature, sharpens the desire to express pictorially.