BEGINNINGS
Our eyes are drawn, as by a magnet, to some sights, be they a face or a shadow, a reflection or a pattern. We have no choice but to look at them. As soon as they disappear or recede, we are left bereft.
The pleasure that scenes of art or nature afford us is what we call beauty. This pleasure cannot be one of fulfilment or contentment since beauty is above all a mystery which leaves us yearning for more. Perhaps that is why we are never sated : beauty promises more than it ever delivers, constantly concealing what we obstinately pursue and remaining indescribable and elusive.
A word about myself : I am above all an inveterate observer and beholder of the sights and scenes we have been discussing.
It is easy to see what inspires me : the flesh in Renaissance portraits, Bosch’s devilries, Japanese fabrics, the lovely faces of people in the street, the striking beauty of the ugly. It is here that scarcely perceptible nuances reveal a hollow, a slackening, a renouncing or a form of vigour, a sign of strength or of strain. The awe that beauty inspires is born of such precision and that is what - with all my gesticulating, my sketches and my research - I strive towards. That is the quest that inspires and fascinates me.
