Peter Doig Quotes about Art

Peter Doig is a famous Scottish born artist based in the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago. He is best known for his paintings which sell for record amounts at auction, making him one of the highest selling living artists in the world. Famous Peter Doig artworks include “White Canoe”, “Swamped”, “Architect’s Home in the Ravine”, “Milky Way”, “100 Years Ago”, “Echo Lake”, “Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre”, “Red Boat (Imaginary Boys)”, “Night Playground”, “The Heart of Old San Juan”, “Saint Anton (Flat Light)” and “Okahumkee (Some other Peoples Blues)”.

Mini biography: Born Peter Doig on the 17th of April, 1959 in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom of Great Britain. His mother was Mary and his father David Doig was an accountant. Doig married Bonnie Kennedy in 1987 and they have five children: Celeste, Simone, Eva, Alice and August. The couple separated in 2012. In 2015 Doig had a child (Echo) with Parinaz Mogadassi.

List of Famous Peter Doig Art Quotes

In some way it is trying to find images that have some sort of resonance rather than meaning. Peter Doig

I constantly have to negotiate with my doubts. Peter Doig

With a phone, you can capture what you see in just a click. But how can you do that with what’s in your head, if not through painting? Peter Doig

I am always interested in what we miss when we try to focus on what we see. For example, when you take a photo you will always feel a bit disappointed after the exposure, because it’s never representing what you perceived when you took it. Peter Doig

As an artist, you are always seeking subjects. You have a different experience of the world to others who aren’t looking in the same way. Peter Doig

I’m not trying to make paintings look like photos. I want to make paintings using photos as a reference, the way painters did when photography was first invented. Peter Doig

I think that painting has to have resonance. It has to have a life beyond what it’s depicting. Without that, it may be just a drawing, or illustration. Peter Doig

I also learned that you are affected by your environment, even if you try not to be. Color, light, that is because you want to do justice to it and you also get excited by it. It doesn’t mean that I will do a city painting if I go back to London. Peter Doig

For me, there has to be an inspiration to make a painting. It’s not just a painterly thing. Otherwise, I would have been a very different type of artist. Peter Doig

British people might imagine an island like Trinidad is paradise but, for those who live there, it’s a very ordinary and hard place as well. I think the dream still is to leave for a lot of people. Peter Doig

Painting makes visible what we cannot see. It may sound pretentious, but it’s true. If you close your eyes and think of a man on a beach, for example, you can see something in your mind’s eye. And it’s that vision, that no one else can see, that interests me. I don’t try to paint dreams or specific images, even if I’m sometimes inspired by them. What excites me are the images that come from our mind. I want to make them visible, real. Peter Doig

I don’t think my paintings are reactionary in the way they look back. I hope they are about looking forward. I believe in the future of art, but not necessarily in the way it is told. I find a lot of work done 100 years ago more forward looking than what was done in the last ten years. Peter Doig

Peter Doig Painting

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Related or similar popular artists and celebrities include: Edvard Munch, Chris Ofili, David Hockney, Paul Gauguin and other Famous Scottish Artists.