Mary Beth McKenzie Quotes

Most beginners are too anxious for results. Real progress takes place over a long period of time.

I always work directly from life, partly because I really enjoy having an interaction with the person in front of me but also because I love having a direct response to shape and color.

Leaving some areas less finished in a painting, or more out of focus than others, allows the imagination to finish them and gives more importance to the detailed parts.

Nothing is more beautiful than a line that brings out a form.

You have to evolve as an artist, and this is really a lifelong process.

A painting has its own existence and reality, and I make changes freely to meet the painting's needs. This sometimes takes me in another direction.

Cats sleep in a state of total abandon, and I find that state very interesting in people as well.

Sometimes working on one painting will help solve a problem in another painting.

Everything in painting is about relationship, so I judge each area by its relationship to the surrounding areas.

I usually start by doing one or more color studies of the subject on a piece of canvas taped to cardboard.

Artists make things so much easier for themselves when they learn to trust their eyes.