I'm not such an artist type that I can't handle the real world. I read the financial pages, because most people don't talk about art.

This morning I got up early and I was glazing the paintings and they just looked so beautiful. I had a private moment of yeah, I'm behind this. Which is all that matters as an artist, to believe in what you're doing. It sounds like an obvious thing but it takes a lot of work.

Most people draw from the mind, not the eye. They draw the idea of a table or a face, not what's in front of them. We don't actually see the line of the jaw as a line and we don't see an eye as a perfectly outlined almond shape.

It's not until the very last phase that you know how good the works are going to be.

Most days, I practice piano in the mornings and I spend the rest of the day painting.

My uniform is sweatpants, so crusted over with dried paint that they're as hard as a table. I wear T-shirts that are also covered in paint, and Crocs.

If you come every day or every month to my studio, you won't see that much change, but if you come once a year, you'll see big new categories opened up.

So many paintings have hidden meanings or need wall texts, but my work is not in that category.

I'm not particularly interested in painting, per se. I'm interested in a painting that has that mysterious life to it. Anything that doesn't partake of that magic is halfway dead - it returns to its physical elements, it's just paint and canvas.

All my siblings became artists. One's a novelist, my brother is a painter, my sister was a costume designer.

I try not to bring in anything I don't love looking at. It's about restaint ... There is something about an unfinished quality that leaves within you that sense of possibility.