Top 30 John Dyer Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “A man may go to heaven without health, without riches, without honors, without learning, without friends; but he can never go there without Christ.”

— John Dyer

2. “St. Michaels Mount is a favourite place of mine; people will walk across to the Mount all day and assume they will be able to walk home. The spectacle of hundreds of people realising that the path they walked over on is disappearing under several feet of water is very amusing.”

— John Dyer

3. “My optimism for life carried through my work.”

— John Dyer

4. “One of the most dangerous things you can believe in this world is that technology is neutral.”

— John Dyer

5. “I love the sea’s sounds and the way it reflects the sky. The colours that shimmer across its surface are unbelievable. This, combined with the colour of the water over white sand, surprises me every time.”

— John Dyer

6. “My father is a well known artist, Ted Dyer, who has been painting for many years. Our work is very different, but growing up surrounded by paintings, paints, easels and art books does have an effect.”

— John Dyer

7. “The most amazing thing to me about the sea is the tide. A harbour like St. Ives is totally transformed in a very short space of time by the arrival or departure of the sea.”

— John Dyer

8. “Digital media has destroyed much of the magic and mystery of the medium.”

— John Dyer

9. “My great love is my home county of Cornwall, I love to sit and watch people enjoying themselves on the beaches and in the harbour towns of Cornwall.”

— John Dyer

10. “And see the rivers how they run Through woods and meads, in shade and sun, Sometimes swift, sometimes slow, Wave succeeding wave, they go A various journey to the deep, Like human life to endless sleep!”

— John Dyer

11. “I have been surrounded by artists and paintings throughout my life. My father Ted Dyer is an artist, and from a very early age I have spent time painting and drawing.”

— John Dyer

12. “I want to paint big, bright, optimistic pictures of the place I love.”

— John Dyer

13. “Painting is really good fun, I have always enjoyed it. As long as I paint what I want with the freedom that I enjoy, I never tire.”

— John Dyer

Featured in: Fun Quotes

14. “The lifestyle that an artist can have, the freedom to wander in the landscape with no real pressure or deadlines, was a very attractive one.”

— John Dyer

15. “I decided to become a painter when my first four paintings where all published and attracted a great deal of interest. I exhibited one of them and it was sold.”

— John Dyer

16. “During the winter when the weather is too poor to work outside, I do use drawings and photographs, but I change my work so it is not just a time and place study.”

— John Dyer

17. “It’s a terrible thing wishing that it can be someone else’s tragedy.”

— John Dyer

18. “The majority of my work is from life. I spend most fine days from May to October painting outside.”

— John Dyer

19. “I studied for my degree in London and consequently ended up spending five years away from Cornwall. I deliberately moved away from the coast to experience a different way of life.”

— John Dyer

20. “And when we run into technology failures and problems – dropped calls, the Blue Screen of Death, smog, and so on – let’s not curse our tools like fools do. Instead, when the medicine no longer works, let us redirect our hope away from our tools and to the one who will restore all human things, human souls, human bodies, and human creations.”

— John Dyer

21. “I used to own a dingy and can still sail one if pushed, but I like the pleasure boats.”

— John Dyer

22. “I have improved the way in which I paint. The colours are cleaner and there is more energy in the brush work.”

— John Dyer

23. “I was told I was talented when I applied to Falmouth School of Art and that I should consider skipping the course and proceeding directly to degree level.”

— John Dyer

24. “I use about 20 different colours to retain the luminance in my work.”

— John Dyer

25. “I apply paint directly from the tube and with my fingers.”

— John Dyer

26. “And he that will this health deny, Down among the dead men let him lie.”

— John Dyer

27. “I still take photographs for my own use, personal studies. I do not feel that I can fully express my views through the medium and this is why I have moved towards painting.”

— John Dyer

28. “The paintings by Van Gough and Chagall had a big influence on me.”

— John Dyer

29. “In some parts of the world there is very little tidal movement.”

— John Dyer

30. “I use a wide selection of colours. It is impossible to produce work like mine using only the primary colours as they only mix a certain range of colour.”

— John Dyer

31. “I paint what I see, not what a camera would see.”

— John Dyer

32. “I have lived in Cornwall from the age of 4, so I have always been aware of the artistic heritage that the county has. I feel very proud to be able to connect to this.”

— John Dyer

33. “I realised that if I did what I wanted to do, it would work.”

— John Dyer

34. “I really enjoy squeezing out a big lump of paint directly onto the canvas and leaving it; fresh, immediate and sometimes shocking.”

— John Dyer