(no subject)
- So Leonor, you could draw even before you could write?
- Certainly, but all children draw. Even just to keep them quiet. Me, especially. My mother would bring me all different colored pencils and paper. And I draw fervently all day long. But other children stop drawing sooner or later because they become too aware, too lucid. They see pictures or things drawn more perfectly than they can and they both admire them, and are intimidated by them. But if you’re impatient like me you’re anything but intimidated. The more pictures I saw the more I wanted to draw and paint.
She could have had a great career in the avant-garde if she’d wanted one. But the idea of a career has never crossed her mind. She’d find the idea of a career almost humiliating. Because she’s only ever cultivated her being.
To me, watercolors are recreation. After painting at an easel, which I find so severe, almost like a guillotine, I find great freedom in working with watercolors and I’ve always used it as a form of rest. My watercolors come forth with great spontaneity. And I have a lot of fun because it’s the total opposite of painting which I always do in an orderly way, paying strict attention, being very lucid… whereas with watercolor I love splashing. The water component has always fascinated me. In fact, as a child, I’ll be given a basin to play with and I’d spend hours with my hands in the water s[lashing water around… I loved it. And that’s stayed with me, so when I do watercolor I’m never sure what I’ll produce. Even my blotches give me ideas. But the water plays tricks on me. It does what it likes. So a tussle develops between us. I strike it, I try to guide it. The water runs away. So I strike it, stalk it, try to make in obey me. Then, in its disobedience forms things I like… Hair, for example. Locks, wisps… Something very languorous which suits certain faces. So I grab it, change it… It turns into a pale girl. It’s really interesting because while you’re doing it a host of characters or shapes appears that you ultimately choose and dominate… with a degree of caution. Watercolor, aquarelle… a lovely word. Aqua. Little water… aquarelle.