Rummaging through the garage yesterday I came upon this painting which remains one of my favourite. I did a series of paintings on these lilies of which this was the first, but none of them surpassed this one. For me, it has always been "best at first take". The first piece is always fresh, spontaneous and free. In my eagerness to be better in subsequent attempts, I sometimes end up with a piece that looks placid, more well structured but lacking the fully charged emotions of its predecessor. It is important then not just to paint, but to paint with emotional abandon, for only then can there be spontaneity and freedom.
"That figure is most admirable which by its actions best expresses the passion that animates it" - Leonardo da Vinci (from Leonardo's notebooks)
"When the individuality of the artist begins to express itself, what the artist gains in the way of liberty he loses in the way of order." - Pablo Picasso
"What I want is that my picture should evoke nothing but emotion." - Pablo Picasso
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