Thoughts of a painter.

"A good drawing does not in any way compare unfavourably with a good painting. It is more the case that beneath every picture is an essential underlying drawing that sustains it, a skeleton that mobilises it and gives it form. Any painting lacking this base crumbles and appears flimsy.”

"Everybody asks themselves what art is. I think that art is any human creation that is able to lift the spirit to a higher plain of emotion and wonderment."

“…being a painter, a writer, a sculptor or a musician does not put one at a higher rank than any other profession. There are a lot of professions that, when carried out to the extreme, without a doubt achieve a higher level than that of the majority of artists. For instance, a wonderful craftsman, a maker of Manila shawls, can go further than a mediocre sculptor; the work can be superior. Or a great soccer player can raise greater passion than most of us, painters. To be an “artist” does not guarantee anything. However, sometimes a genius is born in a way that distinguishes the great arts, along with science, philosophy or politics, from any other endeavor. We cannot compare Michael Angelo’s Sixteen Chapel or Newton’s Law of Gravitation with the most amazing soccer goal. Art with capital letters is easy to detect; its light continues to shine through time.”
 

“I detest a large part of the minimalism that is practiced today across all the arts. I fear that within this alleged synthesis there is an excess of rubbish and uselessness floating around that serve only to confuse the audience, which at times may be ignorant but blameless, although, more frequently, intolerably pedantic, void of any understanding or knowledge.”
 

“I plead for humility in painting. Painting does not need so much fanfare or intellectual pretension. It must come from a person’s clean soul, from the clear and pure eye of the painter, even if only a simple apple is being painted. It is for this reason that I admire Morandi so much.”