What I do is not actually the making pictures, it's also this movement between the inside
and the outside world and I do it through the medium of paint, colour and form, textures,
to position of colours.
To produce a painting, it's a very painful process actually because you're constantly
letting go to sensation, like the sensation of the colour, the excitement, it's a terrific
excitement, but then you have to cut yourself off because it has to be something that will
work as an object in itself, which is almost counter to the moment of giving.
The arts really don't exist, it's a continual effort, trying to reach out, trying to jump,
but you never land, you're never pleased with what you do, if you're painting a person,
you never get the person on the canvas, it's just a constant repeated effort and after
a while, possibly, sometimes, rarely, you're left with something, another reality which
can please you and excite you and interest you almost as much as the person and then
you know the painting is finished.
What gives you the urge to want to work is your love of the outside, of the lovely outside
world, of people and places, but in order to work you have to turn your back, literally
turn your back on the world and work in a little corner of a studio or a room, quietly
by yourself. For instance, I see people on the street who I think are suddenly or you
know there's something in that person I'd like to paint and when they come into the
studio of course they change, they're no longer the person that I saw on the street.
Sometimes I see people having coffee in the morning and bars and cafes and they seem
so satisfied, you know they're happy to be, I'm never happy to be anyone, I have to be
in my studio, I have to have my paints, I think artists often are not people who have
more, they have less, so they always want something else, they're always running after
something, another reality, something they have to express, whereas people who are not
in the earth can content themselves with everyday life, which is pretty marvelous.
What means something to me is to live long enough to be able to paint more.
