Ben Luke

You're never the same again once you've seen one of those.

I want to talk about David Lynch because he's a great filmmaker about interiors, you know, and you're a great painter of interiors.

And there's this lovely quote from Lynch that you had in one of your books, which, as you say, is sort of Lynch talking in his nutty way about describing the balance of a room.

But actually, it seems to make lots of sense.

He's sort of talking about different facets of a space having fast and slow qualities.

That's weirdly pertinent to your paintings, right?

There are fast and slow elements to an interior with objects and people in it.

Is there a particular discipline in your daily working life that you see as an essential ritual?

Right.

Can we just talk about the writing?

Because it seems to me that it's really interesting that, you know, there you are with your scrambled eggs, making notes.

I know you said that sometimes that's during, sometimes that's before, and sometimes even after you've made paintings.

Yeah.

Are you thinking while you're golfing or are you escaping?

The reason I ask that question is, of course, because in this exhibition, there are two golf paintings.

The one we talked about, which has the sort of Bruegel influences, but there's also a driving range.

But then that has Arcadian art references.

I'm thinking Poussin when I look at that painting, for instance.

Was there also something about that sort of daring of the very final act being to make a painting which had been something entirely different, a red painting?

The painterly daring.