“At the beginning of a painting I have but a general image in mind. The painting process is full of beckoning choices. They appear in the incidental stains and marks of the brush and are ever at play with and re-define the objective.
I regard this to and fro as finding the form to release the sense, it leads to inevitable changes of shape, scale, color, edge, and other elements of structure. They are hypothetical digressions hidden under layers of paint. Some paintings grow out of previous paintings. They become variations on a theme and that may sustain over years. I may work on several themes at a time.
Recently I have intended a fusion of my interests in the natural and the man-shaped landscape, in architectural structure including interior space, and the intimacy of a still life object and space (somewhat but not totally new for me). These elements are as familiar as looking across my living room to a table with objects beneath a painting on the wall. Some paintings follow closely on the view, others are invented. I could not help but wonder, for instance, that I marveled equally at a bouquet of spring flowers and a tar truck parked near my studio. These polarities are part of life (you may have notice) so I deliberately fused them in a painting.” — Paul Havas
