Bill Gallen

When I look at other people’s paintings, the thing I look for is the presence of love. Love of subject, materials, facility of handling – some evidence of joy, wonder of the ecstatic interchange between the artist and her subject – the lover and the beloved.

It is this that I am interested in for my own work. Not a painting per sé, but as Robert Henri has written:

…the object of painting is the attainment of a state of being.
The painting becomes a trace, the footprint of the state.

The Art Spirit , R. Henri