We all need inspiration and motivation to keep us creatively nourished so here are five pieces of art for you to glean from and understand and five quotes to reflect on while you craft your visual art, music or video this week. We’ve grabbed excerpts and quotes from a multitude of websites in order to keep you inspired. Keep creating and keep engaging!

Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (Wanderer above the Sea of Fog) — Caspar David Friedrich

Alexander Johnstone says, “Caspar David Friedrich is known for his huge romantic landscapes, and Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is certainly one of his most awe-inspiring scenes. Working at the same time as John Constable and JMW Turner in Britain in the early 19th century, he is perhaps Germany's equivalent landscape master.”

Thomas Merton — “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

86th Street Art – Chuck Close

Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York says, “Ceramic tile fabricated by Magnolia Editions, Glass and ceramic mosaic fabricated by Mosaika Art & Design. Chuck Close created twelve large-scale portraits for 86th Street that are based on the artist’s painstakingly detailed photo-based portrait paintings and prints. Chuck Close is an internationally acclaimed painter and printmaker whose artwork has been featured in hundreds of exhibitions as well as private and permanent museum collections around the world."

Edgar Degas — “Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.”

Tiger — Kawanabe Kyosai

Lorenzo Pereira says, “Kawanabe Kyosai was one of the most prominent Japanese artists of the Edo period. His art was influenced by the work of Tohaku, a Kano artist of the sixteenth century who was the only artist of his period to paint screens entirely in ink on a delicate background of powdered gold.”

Evangeline Lilly — “A creative project is a moving target. You never end up where you start.”

The Gleaners — Jean-François Millet

Roberta Dencheva says, “The painting from 1857 illustrates Millet’s favorite topic: peasant life. The Gleaners is a culmination of ten years of research on the work of gleaners, the incarnation of the working class in the French countryside. They were allowed to go in the fields before sunrise and quickly collect the ears of corn missed by the harvesters during the day. Again, it is a revolutionary work, as it is centered on peasants, which was inconceivable at the time.”

Walter Gropius — “Under trees, the urban dweller might restore his troubled soul and find the blessing of a creative pause.”

Spring Festival on the River — Zhang Zeduan

Artsy.net says, “Meant to be viewed by unfurling the lengthy silk handscroll a little at a time, the painting becomes an animated story in which we peer into an idealized city from a bird’s-eye view. Scroll through the length of the highly-detailed painting from right to left to find a bustling marketplace, sailors, farmers, scholars, monks and people of all classes going about their daily lives.”

Debbie Ford — “Your soul is infinitely creative. It is alive and expansive in nature. It is curious and playful, changing with the tides of time.”

We hope that you were encouraged by these pieces and found a new perspective on your project for The Engage Art Contest. If you want to see more examples, read more articles, or contact the team, download the app or visit our website.