Some people are criticised for sometimes putting the cart before the horse. That's just about how I feel if someone asks me whether my workshop and and all its contents are finally complete. And somehow these curious people are right in their way.
Lots of painters start off simply. They don't need any particular place, workshop or something similar to paint a picture. They just need a a surface of 1m x 1m and get stuck right in. I, on the other hand, have to first start up a paint factory in order to have enough colours, hack a forest down for canvas stretchers and buy up an Eastern European cotton, linen and flax mill in order to stretch my canvases. Then of course I need a workshop, ideally over 30m long, 20m wide and at least 6m high...... Maybe I'll paint a picture of that size one day!
And the lighting is important; the best thing is that the whole south wall is made out of glass. How or what I heat it with in the winter really doesn't matter.
In short, since then I've got a plethora of possibilities in my dream workshop to let my artistic ideas take flight. I even dream of founding my own little art school in the future. Classrooms and a large exhibition space are already in the planning stages. The fact is, on such nights the heavy gate slams shut behind me and the stereo blasts out the Stones, Feist or Depeche Mode. Twenty-eight neon suns light up the room, the stove hisses like an old steam engine and the iron construction of the historic building lets out the occasional groan. Some tubes of paint are squeezed onto the pallet and the white canvas screams for endless gratification.
Then all is well and the passion of painting takes its path.....