The Eye of the Heart. The paintings of Cecil Collins - ACE067.4

Collins talking about his working methods: he determines all the details in his mind first, sometimes so completely that there’s no reason to paint them. Collins painting. His VO says that the problem comes when one attempts to "manifest" the mind’s images "into the world of limitations … what it denies you is very important in creativity". He believes that "painting is beyond enjoyment … a strange process of birth…"; he only enjoys what he has created after it is completed. A painting he’s working on. Collins says he doesn’t know what he’s going to paint when he starts; the seeds are inside him and "reveal themselves" as the result of some external stimulus. Other paintings including Hymn (1953). Collins says that "if we’re dealing with the indescribable, it’s quite obvious that we cannot define this reality… It’s not necessary to understand in order to create…" and talks about "old … constant images", such as the angel and the fool, "that come and go in the various cycles of history". He suggests that people need to regain a childlike innocence. The Voice of the Fool (1944). Fool and Flower (1944). Fool and Landscape and other paintings of featuring variations on "the Fool". Collins VO talking about the tradition of a metaphysical reality, "reflected in an intermediary world of archetypal images so that Man … could make contact with that which was absolute". The Invocation (1944). Other paintings including The Wounded Angel. "If these archetypal images die away from Man’s consciousness," says Collins, VO, "he is left in the prison of the echo, and result will be fragmentation and lack of unity."