by Vincent Dulom
It is complicated for me to talk about painting and moreover about my own painting. I can just say that I was lucky enough to meet it. I waited with patience and discretion, unaware of what would emerge. You can’t plan painting. You encounter it. I expect and desire it. I work.
I have always called myself a painter. My painting bears this conviction. I have always thought that i could make this miracle happen by working.
painting is not something to be reasoned about. it does not depend on an idea. Without any self-consciousness, I now look back and realise that I just wanted to make painting escape its confines : to be absolute, sublime and impossible to define. To obtain this result I realised that I should paint without the usual painting gestures and without imagination. I have de- nied composition : which is indefinable is not to be composed. I have neutralised rhythms by applying a slack colour layer. I have replaced style with systematic non-intervention ; this is the scheme and spirit of my method. i encountered painting thanks to this voluntary withdrawal.
While I wait for painting to come, I carefully avoid doing anything that could be remar- kable. To meet painting i have to be patient and as discreet as possible. painting cannot be summoned. it happens suddenly. The most I can do is to be ready and work every day, all day. My main painterly oriented activity consists in choosing my materials carefully.
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Translation : Geneviève Montbel-Simonnet
Rereading : Linda Calderon