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(29)
4th November 1944

When you are painting a building, whatever is seen from the outside is only a superficial aspect. I always feel that the only way to understand the structure is either by creating fantastic dreams out of this building, or, better still, by going inside yourself and walking about fromfloor to floor, feeling the walls, knowing where the windows are and how the four walls are constructed, even imagining the walls behind the plaster, and the strong foundations and cellars. All such things must be truly understood in order to paint this building from the inside out. That is the only way to paint anything - figures, landscapes, still life. When painting figures abstractively, you have to go inside the body yourself, so that you can feel its structure within your mind. Working in this way, it is unnecessary to look at a model while you paint. Such a painting should never be a portrait of any person, but just a man or a woman. This attitude I believe should be taken by the artists because get is too conventional in his art.