Yesterday, at my studio, in one of those moments when the thought becomes the protagonist, I was looking at a painting and I reasserted myself on the conviction that the work must be painted since the first strokes, so, if you carry out a background to later paint over it, it may happen that the support will only be “something we have blurred” to paint over it. I am still convinced that painting has a life of its own, therefore, if since the beginning you paint on a white canvas, that thing that is the support to the final work will have a soul and therefore, a life since the beginning; just as a baby that when is born is a being with its own life though it has been created by his mother, who also has a soul.

That is why painting over a painting that is used as a background helps you to give a life of its own to the work you intend to realize. I paint with matter over another matter which has already become alive; that is what I call knowing to erase, which is just fitting the work on another one supporting it; though you know that that first work supporting the second one does not content the final painting, but just the embryo.

I think that the best support for abstraction is Figuration.

You do not see the soul, but the soul gives you life. You do not see the figure as a support but it has a soul and therefore it also has life; a life which is beneath, covered by abstract strokes.


Jorge Rando, Malaga, October 2005