Worth Repeating - Robert Henri and The Art Spirit

Robert Henri, an artist and teacher, wrote a book called The Art Spirit, which has lots of nuggets in it. I was reading through an old sketchbook of mine from 10 years ago and found the following quotes from The Art Spirit:

"Completion doesn't depend
on material representation.
The work is done when that
special thing has been said."


"There is a time and place for all things.
The difficulty is to use them only
in their proper time and places."


"The most vital things in the
look of a face or of a landscape
endure only for a moment. Work
should be done from memory.
The memory is of
that vital moment."


"All good work is done from
memory whether the model
is present or not."


"Nature has its laws.
Your pigments and your
flat canvas have other laws.
You must work within
the laws of your material."


And my personal favorite....

"Those who cannot begin
do not finish."

I think I might flip this...

"Those who do not finish
cannot begin again."