Sir Terry Frost, R.A. (1915-2003)

'When I am painting I am not concerned with theory however much thinking I may have done before I started to paint. When I am really painting, I have stopped. I am only concerned with what I am to do next. When I do paint I am discovering what I have to do. Thought for me is before and after but not at the time. When one is thinking there are so many possibilities. When one paints, one knows; and the statement is definite ... When I make a painting it is with paint on a flat surface and belongs to itself. It has nothing to do with imitation or representation, though my idea may be and usually is started by an experience of nature or rather the experience of one human being wandering, observing, questioning, worrying, trying to see truth, trying to penetrate the mystery of life' (Frost quoted in an Arnolfini Gallery catalogue, 1965).