Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kellywas an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing simplicity of form, similar to the work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland. Kelly often employed bright colors. He lived and worked in Spencertown, New York...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionArtist
Date of Birth31 May 1923
CountryUnited States of America
draw drawing enjoy grew school taught
I was taught to draw very well when I was in school at Boston. And I grew to enjoy drawing so much that I never stopped.
bought drawings kept paris somehow
One of the first drawings I did in Paris - I wasn't thinking of doing drawings, but somehow or other, I kept drawing - I bought a hyacinth flower with a lot of leaves, just to make me feel like spring.
drawings drawn five swift ten
I like to be able to get swift curves in the plant drawings that are usually drawn in five to ten minutes.
drawing trying copying
Shading is more like copying. And certainly I do copy, but I'm making drawings, and I'm not trying to make them with the shading.
drawing half hours
My drawings have to be quick. If they don't happen in 20 minutes or a half hour, then they're no good.
drawing
All my work begins with drawings.
drawing lines want
I don't labor over my drawings. I want to get freedom in the line.
color drawing done
All my paintings are usually done in drawing form, very small. I make notations in drawings first, and then I make a collage for color. But drawing is always my notation.
believe drawing gestures
In drawing, I don't erase. I believe the original gesture has to be the best.
draw flashes note
My ideas I can find anywhere. And I draw because I have to note down my ideas or flashes - I call them flashes, because they come to me, like that. Not so much in the plant drawings. I have to see them.
coat density gets surface
I don't like acrylic because you can't get the density of color. And with each coat of oil paint, the surface gets better and richer.
almost antique coming liked separate
In Paris in the late '40s, I started making my first reliefs. They are separate panels. I wanted to do something coming out of the wall, almost like a collage. I did a lot of white reliefs when I started because I liked antique reliefs, really old stuff.
paint seen women
I said, I don't want to paint things like Picasso's women and Matisse's odalisques lying on couches with pillows. I don't want to paint people. I want to paint something I have never seen before. I don't want to make what I'm looking at. I want the fragments.
bit goes gray orange takes time
Gray goes with gold. Gray goes with all colors. I've done gray-and-red paintings, and gray and orange go so well together. It takes a long time to make gray because gray has a little bit of color in it.