Excerpts from Considerations in Painting and Drawing
....from the lecture, The Recognition of Images
It was through these five paintings that I learnt what was important to me in painting.
After really looking at these five paintings I realised what I was really committed too was the communication of a state or situation through an image. In order for the image to carry that situation or state through to the viewer, it needed to be constantly working as an active element.
I want to say a few words here about that working image.
In order to communicate state(s), the artwork is required to be active, working all the time. It is often the case for me, that the success and failure of an image is its capacity to remain active and remain working, after I have physically stopped painting or drawing.
I know intimately the paintings if asked to ‘round-up’ a selected group. These are often the paintings I distinguish as being of worth, those that still retain or possess that active and working element and that is integral to their recognition and remembering.
This may appear quite subjective, however I have tested this out often with sets of paintings.
When I look at Las Hilanderas (The Spinners) by Velasquez, which was painted in 1657, it appears to me to be still active, still at work. A painting that is very much alive when we see it. This resilience only belongs to the very best images.
I am often asked why I returned to Painting after ten years working in photography, collage and film.
In painting, it is painting's difference to all the other related visual activities that interests me – it is what sets it apart. It was its unique position in the arts and it always seemed to distance it from the other forms.
On Seeing Pictures
I do not believe I have looked more intensely than anybody else but I have always been looking. The question I suppose is what is the nature of the looking and what do you see?
The first stage is the looking. The second stage is to see. The second stage is the painting. I paint in order to see. This is what happens when you make paintings. When making paintings you are on the way to seeing. I paint to see.
There is a stage after that and it can be explained in the old saying, “I see what you mean”. This stage I don’t think about much these days. As I have found for me it is enough to bring the various elements together without trying to predict or pre-empt how it will be understood. It is work for others if they wish to take it on.