Have you every been "just-messing-around" and that piece of art seems to be the best that you have done in a long time? well this is what happened with this little canvas. It was lying in the studio and became a useful item on which to clean my paint brush. So, after a while it had accumulated a variety of coloures and textures. Then, looking at it, without any particular objective, using the brush that I was about to wipe clean on the canvas, started painting the outline of this woman that was balancing more on one leg than the other. The coloured seemed to morph into the body of the woman, it was a very visceral moment. The feeling was completely satisfying and a sensation that one tries to replicate again and again with each painting. Unfortunately it does not always raise to the occasion. It is very much like having a run a very fast 10km (or any other distance), and one is on a high for a while. The next time one goes out to run this distance again, one knows that to achieve this "state" a certain amount of discomfort must be invoked first: the lack of oxygen, the fatigued muscles and the wanting to stop, before the sensation of flying starts to happen. Sometimes I think painting is very much the same, one need discomfort to bring out the best in one. But it has to be self induced, and a want. There is a common way of mentioning this: "break out of your comfort zone"
