I refuse (that is) for as long as all I have is an idea. In fact, at the moment I have several ideas for pictures. They all seem to me to be potentially quite good ideas. I even have a clear idea about the medium in which I want to do them, and the format in which I would work. The trouble is, of course, that an idea is not necessarily a good base from which to start.
The key to a good picture (it seems to me) is invariably a visual image, and that can be quite different from an idea. I am groping towards that goal, and that I believe that the foundation for these pictures will be human figures. They will be surrounded by a frame of text, rather like my T.S. Eliot series.* Until I see them in my mind’s eye, moving or gesturing, and with facial expressions, it will be hopeless to make a start.
In my attempt to get going here I am working outwards from what I believe they will say. At the same time I am doing something I have never tried before. I am moving a wooden mannequin around into what I hope might suggest the frame of mind of this or that person, and above all the action in which they are engaged. The next step will probably be some rough charcoal sketches. I guess it is a kind of beginning. Until I am satisfied that there is, in each case, a lively visual image, then I believe I would be wasting my time, and I refuse to start painting.
*See the “gallery elsewhere in this website, showing my series responding to T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets.