Matisse in Words and Self Portraits Part One

"I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me."

"The essential thing is to spring forth, to express the bolt of lightning one senses upon contact with a thing. The function of the artist is not to translate an observation but to express the shock of the object on his nature; the shock, with the original reaction."

"It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else."

"There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted."

Art and words by Henri Matisse