I encountered a remark earlier today, by the poet John Cooper Clarke, that gave me pause for thought. All you need in order to be a poet, he said, is “a pen, a notebook and idleness.” I rather like that. Something related to this was said by (I think) V. Gordon Childe, to the effect that a precondition of civilisation is that humanity reached a point at which it produced enough for some of its members not to have to engage regularly in routine production. In other words, civilisation depends (other things being equal, of course) on idleness. Only if you no longer need to spend every moment in meeting your basic needs can you engage in the reflection necessary to see how life might be changed, improved and embellished.
Something like Clarke’s observation might be true of painting as well as poetry. Although I kept telling myself, while I was working as a university teacher, that I could always fit in some painting now and then, it rarely happened. Retirement from teaching was a precondition for my being able to enjoy the time for reflection that is the necessary context for painting. I’m not sure that I would describe my situation as one of “idleness”, however, and I reckon that Clarke too was not entirely serious. I’ve just spent most of today painting, and I’m really rather weary. It certainly doesn’t feel like “idleness”! Even so: I get the idea.