45+ Beautiful Watercolor Quotes To Inspire You

Watercolor is a form of painting where water-soluble pigments in different colors are used to paint with the help of brushes.

Watercolor is popular among kids and also among artists. It is a long and hard process to perfect this technique of painting.

Watercolor paints are colored pigments either filled in tubes or dried up and filled in color palettes. They are made of pigments that is mixed with a binder, called gum arabic, and then water is added to it for applying on paper. Artists use watercolor for various reasons: it is a great medium, the flexibility of the transparency is a benefit and there is also a glow in watercolor paintings. Legendary artists like Albrecht Dürer, William Blake, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Elizabeth Murray and many others used watercolor for painting. William Blake used watercolors to paint Dante's 'Divine Comedy', which is one of most famous watercolor paintings now.

Watercolor quotes are really inspiring, many artists across ages have talked about watercolor paintings and sometimes compared watercolor with other artforms through these quotes. Here's a list of quotes for watercolor paintings which can even be used for watercolor painting captions on your social media platforms. Painting quotes are trending now, so you might find some fascinating watercolor quotes here.

If you are looking for other articles related to watercolor quotes you might check out these Picasso quotes and art quotes for kids.

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Many artists have spoken about watercolor techniques and compared them with other aspects of life. Here's a list of inspiring watercolor quotes for budding artists and those who are motivated by art.

1. "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

- Pablo Picasso.

2. "If I have any advice to anybody it's this: take up watercolor painting."

- Charles Bukowski.

3. "The good watercolors take a lifetime - plus a half an hour."

- Toni Onley.

5. "I have been doodling with ink and watercolor on paper all my life. It's my way of stirring up my imagination to see what I find hidden in my head."

- Maurice Sendak.

6. "I have fascination and wonder about the line and transparent quality or properties in watercolor."

- Jerry Pinkney.

7. "I use watercolor to give voice to what I would like to talk about."

- Jerry Pinkney.

8. "It was a great test of my ability to work with... watercolors. And it was also a test of my patience; I needed to put myself in a completely disciplined position... I couldn't make mistakes."

- Liu Dan.

9. "In watercolor, if you are not in trouble, then you’re in trouble."

- Selma Blackburn.

10. "Only once in the last thirty years have I made a duplicate, and that was a watercolor from my oil picture now owned by the Layton Art Gallery, Milwaukee, called ‘Hark! The Lark.’"

- Winslow Homer.

11. "Watercolor is a medium that can be as demanding and temperamental as those who choose to paint with it. But it is a colorful and exciting medium all the same – well suited to describing the many moods of the subject, as well as those of the artist wielding the brush."

- Jean Burman.

12. "Perhaps watercolour is more art than acrylics or oil, because the opportunity to correct errors is very limited as the colours are transparent… The sun, wind and temperature influences water-pigment-paper! Everything flows, painting with watercolors!"

- Adriana Buggino.

13. "Part of why I like watercolor is that mistakes are visible, and you can’t really repair much. It has to look easy. When it comes out, it looks easy, but to get to that point takes a lot of doing."

- Chris Raschka.

14. "Translucence is an effect unique to the medium of watercolor and the lure that beckons me into the studio for yet another creative adventure."

- Michele Cooper.

15. "Watercolors are more difficult to control and very often a mistake in color or value is not easy to fix. Oils, on the other hand, can be manipulated much more easily. People often ask me which one I prefer, and the answer is the one I’m using at the time."

- Guy Corriero.

16. "Watercolor, with all its subtle color and value gradations and its many welcome surprises, is the perfect medium for capturing mood."

- Ray Hendershot.

17. "Watercolour is probably the most satisfying of all mediums. Although difficult in the beginning, after practice its mysteries will unfold, providing the utmost pleasure for the dedicated."

- Robert Lovett.

A number of artists have spoken a number of quotes, so here is a list of one of the best quotes that might make you think deeply about art and find art in your every day routine.

18. "Watercolor is like life. Better get it right the first time - you don't get a second chance!"

- Sergei Bongart.

19. "What I love about watercolor is that a lot of happy accidents occur."

- Jane Seymour.

20. "Because watercolor actually moves on the paper, it is the most active of all mediums, almost a performance art."

- Nita Engle.

21. "Watercolor is an alchemical medium - colors mixing with water, joining with it, being extended by it - creating new life where none had been before."

- Joseph Raffael.

22. "She was transparent, like a watercolor. As if she were about to dissolve in sound, in tones not yet created."

- Peter Høeg.

23. "Watercolors is the first and the last thing an artist does."

- Willem de Kooning.

24. "You will see, in the future I will live by my watercolors. "

- Winslow Homer.

25. "Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolors."

- Joan Didion.

26. "My father taught me to paint when I was young with watercolors and so I learned at a very young age the essential elements of the value of light and composition."

- Matthew Modine.

27. "Watercolor is what I started out with. What I love about watercolor is that a lot of happy accidents occur."

- Jane Seymour.

28. "Watercolor is a swim in the metaphysics of life… a mirror of one’s own character. Let it be unpredictable and colorful."

- Unknown.*

29. "Watercolours, when they are framed, are separated from the viewer by glass. With a canvas painting the viewer can look and see the brush strokes, texture and even touch one’s painting if so inclined. The glass separates the viewer from the material… less satisfying visually… and yet they have to be protected."

- Denise Bezanson.

30. "When I look at a watercolor of that same person, it seems to me alive, more open than a photograph."

- Francesco Clemente.

31. "Everything about watercolor appeals to me, but perhaps above all, the peculiarities of the medium tend to challenge my efforts to control it… it’s more like a performance or a dance."

- John Hulsey.

42. "Watercolour painting is notoriously difficult – so much depends on directness and speed, and certainty of intention. Tentative or fumbling touches are disastrous, for they cannot be obliterated easily."

- Walter J. Phillips.

Tumblr is known for its wide variety of content from artists all over the world and the aesthetic paintings that users share on the site. Here are some watercolor quotes that you can use for captions for Tumblr or any other social media platform that you wish to make use of. Watercolor quotes don't get much better than these!

33. "Painting is just another way of keeping a diary."

- Pablo Picasso.

34. "After a few thousand watercolors you will find that you have fallen in love with paper and paint."

- Rex Brandt.

35. "This isn't a watercolor, it's a mural."

- Erich Segal.

36. "To me, watercolor is a Western medium, so when I feel like I am using a Western manner I will use English to sign my name."

- Liu Dan.

37. "If London is a watercolor, New York is an oil painting."

- Peter Shaffer.

38. "I do tend to use watercolors – I love the splatter sort of thing you can do with watercolors. "

- Mini Grey.

39. "I spend a lot of time doing watercolors and playing music in my apartment."

-  Lola Kirke.

40. "My drawings at first were made altogether in watercolors, but they wanted softness and a great deal of finish."

-  John James Audubon.

41. "I have no interest in the dark and gloomy. To me, the delight of watercolor is in capturing the light within the white paper by surrounding it with successive washes of transparent color."

-  Jean Grastorf.

42. "Watercolor offers us, as artists, an inspired approach to the age-old process of making paintings sing."

- Jeffrey J. Watkins.

43. "To paint a successful watercolor it seems one must know what the finished result will look like before the first stroke of blossoming color is applied to the paper. "

- Dianne Middleton.

44. "Because watercolor actually moves on the paper, it is the most active of all mediums, almost a performance art."

-  Nita Engle.

45. "I’d rather lose large than win slightly. I think life is an oil painting, not a watercolor."

- Janet McTeer.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for watercolor quotes then why not take a look at these Michelangelo quotes, or Henri Matisse quotes for more quotes to share with fellow artists?

*Do you know where this quote originated? Please email us to let us know at [email protected]

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