I suspect that I have been going about painting in the wrong way on many occasions. I am sure it is the same for many artists, in that sometimes a picture works and sometimes it just doesn’t seem to. It came to me today that perhaps I have been getting things in the wrong order. A good picture should begin, not with an idea but with an emotion.
Recently I have been puzzled by the fact that I have had a succession of what appeared to be good ideas for paintings, but they never seemed to get off the ground. On reflection it came to me that perhaps I have been starting with something rather dry and abstract (an idea) and then trying to endow it with emotion afterwards. If there is no emotional charge in the original reference material, however, the picture will go nowhere. It doesn’t matter if an original reference sketch is really rudimentary, it will work as the foundation for a picture if it does capture the essential emotional charge. Similarly, it doesn’t matter how great a reference photograph is, it will only be any use if it manages to convey the emotional charge which motivated it.