Number 33 in our countdown of '70 Ways Art Improves Our Health' comes straight from the mouths of renowned artists…

Hearing the experiences and thoughts of other artists can encourage, motivate, uplift, and inspire creativity in ourselves.

There are hundreds of quotes from world-renowned artists about the power of art in their lives. Here, we’ve gathered just a handful more.

1. Louise Bourgeois

“I need to make things. The physical interaction with the materials has a curative effect.”

Probably most famous for her giant spider sculptures, art was Louise Bourgeois’ tool for coping. For her, 'art is a guarantee of sanity.'

2. Georgia O’Keeffe

“I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't say any other way...things I had no words for.”

Georgia O’Keeffe was a pioneer of twentieth-century art and is best known for her paintings of magnified flowers that offer much more than meets the eye.

3. Ian Davenport

“As an artist interested in colour, my time in hospital was empty and bleak. Working with Paintings in Hospitals means I can do something to change that.”

Our Patron Ian Davenport is an abstract artist, and former Turner Prize nominee, whose colourful poured line paintings are instantly recognisable. Ian joined our charity to help make a difference after his father passed away in hospital.

4. Wassily Kandinsky

“Colour hides a power still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body.”

Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist. He is widely recognised as painting one of the first abstract artworks.

5. Howard Hodgkin

“The only way an artist can communicate with the world at large is on the level of feeling.”

Turner Prize winner Sir Howard Hodgkin was considered among Britain’s greatest artists. He saw his paintings as distilled memories and emotion. We're very lucky to have two works by him in the Paintings in Hospitals collection.

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