Susanna and the Elders, the woodcut pictured, shows me on the right and the painter Tim Behrens on the left, admiring a pretty waitress in a bar. We are being observed by some younger people. The paintings are still lifes made up of objects and postcards from my studio. Sometimes a still life may be composed partly by chance; for instance, the black cloth fell into that twisted shape accidentally, creating what looked like a little empty stage which I then dressed. Sometimes the objects are there for more personal reasons. I thought of the little monkey gazing at my baseball cap as a self-portrait. I like to paint things that I know well; that is why the ink bottle, the Mexican skull and the monkey appear more than once. I have painted the lion about ten times. Here are a couple of remarks about painting that I always bear in mind when I work:

"There are two ways to think about painting, how to do it and how not to do it: How to do it-with much drawing and little colour; how not to do it-with much colour and little drawing"- Vincent van Gogh

"You have to risk everything"- Pablo Picasso