“The impulse to paint comes (…) from an encounter: the encounter between painter and model – even if the model is a mountain or a shelf of empty medicine bottles. Mont St Victoire as seen from Aix (…) was Cézanne’s companion” [1]
For me painting has the meaning of a discovery. By concentrating on my subject – model, still life, landscape or whatever – and trying to catch line, stroke and surface, I see the world differently, more intense.
Painting is an encounter opening the eyes.
Painting is also a form of appropriation. I want to understand my subject and conquer it eventually. Conquering sounds combative and so it is. But it causes no damage, because it is a battle with myself. A battle to unravel the essence of my subject, or ‘the other’, and ultimately ‘catch’ it. When I succeed I have the feeling the other has become part of myself.
