What comes
to the easel next

I do not want merely to paint the places I visited. I want to paint what the journey awakened. A literal view can preserve a location; a painting can preserve the feeling of encountering it.

Characters with a life behind them

My future figures will carry more of the world around them. A cap, a coat, a curious posture, or a small companion may suggest a whole private history. The humor will remain. So will the tenderness. London has sharpened my desire to let both occupy the same face.

Light that tells the story

I keep thinking about light passing over stone, the sudden brightness beyond an arch, and the softer illumination that lets a portrait reveal itself slowly. I want light to guide the viewer toward the emotional center of a painting, with smooth passages and clear, deliberate forms.

A setting with something to say

A modest doorway, a glimpse of river, a quiet room: the background need not become crowded to become meaningful. I want to give each setting just enough presence to make us wonder what happened before the moment we see—and what might happen next.

History with room for imagination

Some paintings will begin with family research. Others will grow from a face or a place that refuses to leave my thoughts. Where the story is imagined, I will let it be imagined. That freedom is part of painting’s pleasure: the ability to ask what might have been, then invite someone else to look.

I brought home more than photographs. I brought home a new appetite for painting.

This issue of Seüreen opens with that feeling. The journey is over, but its influence has only begun. There are canvases waiting, characters stirring, and stories asking to be told. I am eager to see where they take me.

Richard Thorn