Henry Miller on Painting - Part 1

Henry Miller shuts off the "thinking machine" and arbitrarily chooses color when he paints.

"If I happen to put my brush into red paint I begin with red; if blue, then it's blue. What difference does it make? I begin is the thing, begin anywhere, anyhow. So it goes. What results is not of my bidding. It's either the work of the devil or my guardian angel. I can take no credit for the performance.

There is something else to be said about this immediate, spontaneous way of working, and that is this: in such moments one is playing at the game of creation. And if we are to believe the ancients, creation is play. The very nature of creation betokens the unpredictable and unrepeatable."

Excerpts from Henry Miller's essay; Paint as You Like and Die Happy

Ideas to contemplate......