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JL. Yes I see.
RA. I think you go
back and open these doors and have a few minutes view through the door
and then close it again, and come back with it.
JL. Yes.
RA. And it grows
into the world you are actually living in - I don't sit down and think
while I am doing the painting -are---I must go back. It may take three
weeks from experiencing the journey back, to actually doing the
painting.
JL. Is there a
relationship, the second half of the question, to the experience in Rye
and these recollections?
RA. Yes I think the
happiness of ones childhood; I could feel through the visionary depth of
that night.
JL. No could we -
even when you go to Chopin and there is an intermission and you buy
refreshments. Do you think we could have an intermission? I mean could
we talk about technique?
RA. Yes.
JL Have you anything
to say about technique - most of your paintings are watercolours?
RA. I would like to
say at this point John, that though I acknowledge that the craft of
graining has influenced my painting and in particular the watercolours,
since 1968; I must make quite clear so that no misconceptions occur -
that the technique of lines in the watercolours are not produced with a
graining comb. QUITE THE OPPOSITE, each line has been laid down next to
the other one, almost in the tradition of Cézanne and with what I trust
is tender loving care. In fact I like to think each line is in love
with the next one. This reminds me of "Love they neighbour as thyself",
for in doing so we experience the whole - or holiness. And so also in a
painting, sculpture or piece of music. When each part lives in harmony
- not of sameness, but in LOVE, MAGIC occurs.
JL. Now RA - do you
have several paintings on the go at once?
RA. Usually only
one. When I was doing the woods, I would work solidly in the mornings,
start at approximately 9am and then stop mid-afternoon. As Renoir said
- "you have to stop work and take a stroll once in a while", and produce
an organic garden.
JL. Take "Engineers
Wood" how long would that take - do you work solidly or do you meditate
and look at the timing for a long period?
RA. I would probably
start with a small part of the foliage of the tree, then wait, perhaps
for an hour before I would be drawn to place the next shape.
JL. Really.
RA. So they look easy
and almost done quickly; in that particular period they were very very
slow.
JL. Do you have many
failures - by that I mean are many not present here because you have
destroyed them?
RA. When paintings
reach a critical time - I would like to think I can pull them back from
the brink - by perhaps some very rapid painting - almost in contrast to
the rest of the picture. Also as you know John, one can only include a
few pictures in a book. An artist on the whole has an unlimited number
of paintings. Perhaps you could say they are of the future---the ones
that don't get in. Similar to a rare bottle of claret, which is just
too young to drink and must be put away to mature for a few years.
JL. Do you work
everyday - I mean are there periods when you cannot work because your
ideas have dried up?
RA. Yes.
JL. There are.
RA. John it is not
quite like that - yes I have moments of complete blankness - the ideas
are always with you - pictures are taken from everyday life - at the
moment it is just a little difficult to put into words. I go into the
studio and I look and I think what am I doing here.
JL. Do you give up?
RA. I suppose to a
certain degree the answer must be yes - I think it is much healthier -
rather than sitting looking into space, and it is not an artistic mood.
JL. No, No, it is
realistic.
RA. That's right.
JL. The following day
would you go to your studio again?
RA. Yes - go in again
and seeing, similar to dipping one toe in the sea to find out if it is
warm.
JL. Do you work in
patches - do you have a sort of intense creative period of weeks at a
time and then a lull or is it fairly steady.
RA. No it is fairly
steady.
JL. How do you
justify this work?
RA. In monetary
terms?
JL. No in - a nurse
could argue their work is of social benefit - caring for others is in
itself a spiritual activity and clearly of social value. How would you
justify your work as an artist?
RA. Oh to reveal the
unseen - and to give some pleasure and delight to people from all walks
of life, as Klee said "Art does not reproduce the visible, but makes
visible".
JL. Which you believe
you are doing through this work and so whether it is in another sense -
seen or unseen you have made your contribution.
RA. Yes I believe
wholeheartedly that I have done or am doing my bit.
JL. Now we are moving
here to this page of emotional states GREED, ENVY, ANGER and FEAR - when
were they produced.
RA 1972.
JL. Would you like to
say anything about why you did those?
RA. To try to express
the hidden unseen side of our emotions - take Fear which is this
compressed feeling of being trapped by whatever fear we have locked away
- almost destroying the being by the pressure.
JL. You feel the need
to express as it were the sad of the paradise you had been painting.
RA. Yes very well put
John.
JL. To expunge these
spirits.
RA. Yes, excellent.
JL. But in no way
would you describe your work as self-expressive.
RA. No it is more as
if I was sitting back away from it.
JL. Yes, more
classical rather than romantic! Strangely enough these are more
self-expressive.
RA. Yes I agree.
JL. So in that sense
it is unusual. Would you like to say something about "White Bridge
Tram Wood"?
RA. Yes - in the
left-hand corner there is a tram nestling in the branches of a tree - or
appears to be. The inspiration to paint this came from the day I was
lost in the centre of the city of Leicester. I was 5 years old; my
parents had bought me an ice cream. I think the ice cream must have
worked like a magic lamp because no sooner had I licked it then I was on
my own in a world peopled by giants! After 20 minutes of searching for
them I decided to follow the tramlines for 3 miles back to my
grandmother's house.
JL. But it was just
chance it was in the Right Direction, or were the trams going only in
one direction?
RA. No - I knew the
shape of the road.
JL. What I'm not
clear about - you have talked about expressing a hidden reality - you
have talked about expressing the unseen. What is the importance of some
mere incidence in the life of a 5 year old in Leicester, to that? Why
do you feel that is of significance?
RA. No significance
to anyone else, I painted it for myself to remind me of the day I had
walked along the tramlines at such a very early age.
JL. I think that is a
very beautiful one "HOUSE IN THE ROCKS SPRING WOOD" - I like that.
House in the rocks Spring wood
RA. That goes back to
my days when I went back to the country for 6 weeks during the summer
holidays, from my bedroom miles away.
JL. What is this one
"CLOWN WITH SWANS".
RA. That grew out of
knowing a Dutch antique dealer who prior to becoming a dealer travelled
the world in circuses. He was such a marvellous character that I felt
almost compelled to paint that watercolour
JL. Almost all your
pictures, at least at this moment we are talking about them, appear to
have their origin in something past.
RA. Yes, perhaps I
had swallowed APOLLINAIRES DICTUM that a poet must stand with his back
to the future because he was unable to see it; it was in the past that
he would discover who he was and how he had come to be.
JL. What is - can you
say something about "WITHIN YOU and WITHOUT" 1 - which is a very large
painting.
Within and without you
RA. Yes 7' × 5' in
watercolour which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1975. On the
opposite wall was "WITHIN YOU and WITHOUT" II - 4' × 5'.
Within you and without you II
JL. What are these
pictures of?
RA. All inner and
outer experience. The inner, exemplifying the vibrations of the 1960'
visions. The outer images being or suggesting organic forms, clouds,
trees, water, fishes and swans - rather like the shapes we can see when
looking in flames of a fire.
JL. I mean it looks
like a kind of creation picture.
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