I Believe That To Do Anything In

Never, Never Do I Set To Work On A Canvas In The State It Comes In From The Shop. I Provoke Accidents - A Form, A Splotch Of Color. Any Accident Is Good Enough. I Let The Matiere Decide. Then I Prepare A Ground By, For Example, Wiping My Brushes On The Canvas. Letting Fall Some Drops Of Turpentine On It Would Do Just As Well. If I Want To Make A Drawing I Crumple The Sheet Of Paper Or I Wet It; The Flowing Water Traces A Line And This Line May Suggest What Is To Come Next.

I Work Like A Labourer On A Farm Or In A Vineyard. Things Come To Me Slowly. My Vocabulary Of Forms, For Instance, Has Not Been The Discovery Of A Day. It Took Shape In Spite Of Myself... That Is Why I Am Always Working On A Hundred Different Things At The Same Time.

My Characters Have Undergone The Same Process Of Simplification As The Colors. Now That They Have Been Simplified, They Appear More Human And Alive Than If They Had Been Represented In All Their Details.

That Which Interests Me Above All Else Is The Calligraphy Of A Tree Or The Tiles Of A Roof, And I Mean Leaf By Leaf, Branch By Branch, Blade By Blade Of Grass.

What I Will No Longer Accept Is The Mediocre Life Of A Modest Little Gentleman.