The Picture Should Be Fecund. It Must

For Me, A Picture Should Be Like Sparks. It Must Dazzle Like The Beauty Of A Woman Or A Poem. It Must Have Radiance; It Must Be Like Those Stones Which Pyrenean Shepherds Use To Light Their Pipes.

I Feel The Need Of Attaining The Maximum Of Intensity With The Minimum Of Means. It Is This Which Has Led Me To Give My Painting A Character Of Even Greater Bareness.

My Tendency Towards Bareness And Simplification Has Been Practiced In Three Fields: Modeling, Colors, And The Figuration Of The Personages.

Never, Never Do I Set To Work On A Canvas In The State It Comes In From The Shop. I Provoke Accidents - A Form, A Splotch Of Color. Any Accident Is Good Enough. I Let The Matiere Decide. Then I Prepare A Ground By, For Example, Wiping My Brushes On The Canvas. Letting Fall Some Drops Of Turpentine On It Would Do Just As Well. If I Want To Make A Drawing I Crumple The Sheet Of Paper Or I Wet It; The Flowing Water Traces A Line And This Line May Suggest What Is To Come Next.

Little By Little, I've Reached The Stage Of Using Only A Small Number Of Forms And Colors. It's Not The First Time That Painting Has Been Done With A Very Narrow Range Of Colors. The Frescoes Of The Tenth Century Are Painted Like This. For Me, They Are Magnificent Things.