The blue I mix myself

There is a blue in nearly every canvas I have painted, and it is not a blue you can buy. I mix it myself, from a pigment I collect once a year from the same colour merchant in Montélimar. When the pigment is finished, the blue is finished, and I wait for the next year.

I painted the shutters of the studio with it, years ago. Visitors ask where it comes from and are disappointed when I tell them it comes from patience and a short drive in October.

I am suspicious of anything that can be bought already made. The Midi taught me that — the bread, the oil, the light. None of it arrives finished. You give it your time, or you get something that only looks like the thing you wanted.