Proof that painting is a perilous matter…

Per Kirkeby, a danish painter, was brought to my attention by a friend who is also a painter. What a gift. Thank you Ritchie.

Morning in the workshop
I squeeze a tube of titanium white (a good name). But instead of paint coming out of the hole, a gash appears in the tube itself and white is everywhere. Covered in oily color and not wishing to let it go to waste, I smear the pictures that are leaned innocently against the wall amid their own projects, dabbing them with white and leaving white footprints all over the workshop floor in the process. Hardly have I done this than it begins to snow. The garden is covered by a layer of white. Again proof that painting is a perilous matter. I have on previous occasions invoked thunder and lightning, and now my brush and accident have conspired to draw down white.

—Per Kirkeby, Writings on Art