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February 20, 2004
the bit that's missing
That’s what we’re searching for, the bit that’s missing. I can put all the paint on and do all the tricks so I fool you into thinking this is a picture of a person. I can arrange the colours next to each other in such a way that you believe you are seeing a figure, so far so good.
But to get the feeling across, that feeling - the reason I’m painting the piece in the first place, that’s the difficult bit. That’s the bit you can’t put your finger on.
I can put Naples yellow with flake white and any amount of alizarin crimson with Indian yellow, but without the missing bit I still have nothing. Oh, alright, I have a reasonable rendition of figure but that’s not what I’m trying to do. And the bit that’s missing is the bit that takes the time, the bit that requires prolonged input to exist, that needs to absorb the mood, that can’t be bought in a tube, that needs to be teased, tempted and finally dragged screaming on to the panel. That’s the bit that makes the picture.
Posted by john at February 20, 2004 07:44 PM
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