Friday was a relaxing day painting in the studio with five other artists. Several of us worked on the same photo to emphasize how to paint white. This was a small and simple drawing, but it once again showed that white is not just white. White is a combination of colors that work in contrast to adjacent colors.

“White…is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black…God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.” — G. K. Chesterton

“The first of all single colors is white … We shall set down white for the representative of light, without which no color can be seen; yellow for the earth; green for water; blue for air; red for fire; and black for total darkness.” — Leonardo Da Vinci

“ELOQUENCE, n. The art of orally persuading fools that white is the color that it appears to be. It includes the gift of making any color appear white.” — Ambrose Bierce

“Black and white are absolute…expressing the most delicate vibration, the most profound tranquility, and unlimited profundity.” — Shiko Munakata

“Never use pure white; it doesn’t exist in nature.” — Aldro T. Hibbard

“The great black and white draftsman, the sculptor, and the blind man know that form and color are separate. The form itself is what the blind man knows…Color is surface skin that fits over the form.” — John Sloan

“White covers a multitude of sins.” — Jonathan Milne