The journey of becoming an artist is an interplay of vision, persistence, and the courage to keep creating, even when the world is not looking or applauding. Across centuries, artists have offered insights shaped by their struggles, triumphs, and inner compulsions. Here, five great masters, Eugène Delacroix, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Cézanne share what it truly means to be an artist.
Eugène Delacroix
A leading figure of French Romanticism, Eugène Delacroix was known for his dramatic compositions and vivid color palettes. His works brimmed with emotion and intensity, revealing an artist constantly searching for the perfect expression of feeling. Delacroix believed that art was not about novelty, but about deep engagement with ideas that mattered to the human spirit. His view of genius was rooted in dedication, not discovery.
“What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.” — Eugène Delacroix
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso’s creative force revolutionized the way the world saw form, perspective, and emotion. From the Blue Period to Cubism, his art constantly evolved, mirroring an endless curiosity about life itself. For Picasso, the artist was a conduit, open to absorbing sensations, feelings, and fragments of existence from every direction. His advice reminds us that inspiration is not sought, but received, when one is attuned to the world’s rhythms.
“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” — Pablo Picasso
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol, the charismatic leader of the Pop Art movement, erased the boundaries between high art and popular culture. His work reflected a fascination with consumerism, celebrity, and the everyday. Yet behind his cool exterior was a relentless producer who believed in constant creation over self-doubt. Warhol’s philosophy still resonates in a world obsessed with validation. The artist’s job, he insisted, is to make.
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” — Andy Warhol
Vincent van Gogh
The Dutch master Vincent van Gogh painted with a profound sensitivity to color, light, and emotion. His art often expressed an intimate dialogue with nature — wheat fields, cypress trees, and starry skies became symbols of his inner world. For Van Gogh, artistic truth lay not in imitation but in communion with the natural world. His advice urges us to look beyond technique and towards the essence of what we perceive.
“It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures.” — Vincent van Gogh
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne, often called the bridge between Impressionism and Modernism, sought to reveal the underlying structure of nature through form and color. His disciplined approach to observation and interpretation redefined painting for generations that followed. Cézanne believed art was neither pure reproduction nor abstraction, but was the world filtered through an artist’s inner vision. His words invite us to perceive creation as both sensory and spiritual.
“If I were called upon to define briefly the word Art, I should call it the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature, seen through the veil of the soul.” — Paul Cézanne
Across time, these artists reveal a common thread: art is never complete, never conclusive, and never detached from life. Whether through obsession, receptivity, fearlessness, empathy, or spiritual vision, the act of creation remains an endless dialogue between the self and the world. To become an artist, then, is to persist in this dialogue — to listen closely, to feel deeply, and to keep making, again and again.
Athmaja Biju is the Editor at Abir Pothi. She is a Translator and Writer working on Visual Culture.
