Nelson Shanks Quotes

United States, Artist
December 23, 1937 – August, 28, 2015.

John Nelson Shanks was an American artist and painter. His best known work is probably his portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales, completed in 1996. The painting was first shown at Hirschl & Adler Gallery in New York City, April 24 to June 28, 1996.

Also known as Painter

Photographs and reality are just night and day. In reality, the information is all there. A photograph is just kind of a hint.

Nelson Shanks
- Reality
- Photograph
- Hint
I'm drawing in my head pretty much.

Nelson Shanks
- Drawing
- Head

So really what I am trying to do is create and understand form. But then too, color enters into it because a lot of things are color changes without a value change, which wouldn't show up if you were just using a non-color medium.

Nelson Shanks
- Create
- Form
- Medium
If you can see it, and if you know your color, you can paint it.

Nelson Shanks
- Color
- See
- Paint
If you really want to seriously think about life, and therefore take painting very seriously... and take seriously the joys that it can bring to one, then you want to go to museums. You want to study the great of the past..

Nelson Shanks
- Life
- Painting
- Joys
Realism has to be such high quality, you can't fake it. It's all hanging out there like the laundry.

Nelson Shanks
- Quality
- Fake
- Realism
It's not just a boring exercise in pushing oil paint around a canvas. It's a way of opening a threshold to an exciting new world of vision.

Nelson Shanks
- World
- Vision
- Paint
I try to think and design in color.

Nelson Shanks
- Think
- Design
- Color

If you find yourself with a weakness, attack it... don't develop a technique that avoids your weaknesses.

Nelson Shanks
Nature is the best and really the only real vocabulary that an artist can legitimately work with.

Nelson Shanks
- Work
- Nature
- Vocabulary