There are lots of times when you’re painting that you want to throw in the towel – it’s taking too long, it’s too frustrating, you don’t know what you’re doing. . .

That’s when you have to remind yourself that you have to keep doing what you’re doing because there is no other way to find out what your intention was when you started.

What makes you start is your curiosity – which is part of your intention. You’re curious about the subject and you’re curious to find out if you can show others what you see.

This picture of Eldad and Eric is about that curiosity. I don’t know when it will be done, but it was a special challenge because it’s really about space, the space between them.

I couldn’t have done it without understanding ‘japonism’ and the post-impressionists, because so much of that was about space and their intentions.

I call it ‘Men’ – it’s about them, about the way they are sitting, relating, but it’s also about all males. Otherwise, it wouldn’t matter.

Right now I can’t seem to get on with it, but sooner or later I will because I haven’t quite achieved whatever my intention is. And that is what makes me paint, even when I’m not actually painting. Painting is happening inside me all the time and it can poison my system if I don’t get it out.