Art

Is painting work or a labour of love?
‘It’s work. I think labours of love are strictly for amateurs.’

Is it a nine-to-five activity for you?
‘I find it very difficult to describe how I paint. With age, I try to do as much as possible in my head. Years ago I had an assistant to help me paint my pictures and I’d ask him to make a surface of spots. But I found that I had to repaint them all overnight, at least that way he wouldn’t be offended.’ Feature continues

Some of the new works are huge…
‘I’ve always wanted to paint big and I’ve been working on these for years. One piece, “In Egypt”, was mostly painted with my hands, but don’t write that, because I’ve never told anyone before.’

'Ozone', oil on wood, 2004-2007

The studio is full of light, but is it ever filled with the sound of music?
‘I don’t actually listen to music here because I need to concentrate as hard as possible. However, the new works are based on an old song, “Home on the Range”, which was played on the radio all the time in America, where the family lived during WWII. I’ve always been suspicious of joining painting to music, so this is more about the feeling.’

When is a painting finished?
‘When it says “stop”. Once, in answer to this same question, I said that it’s when the subject comes back.’

You’re famously unimpressed by retrospectives of your work.
‘Most of it hasn’t receded far enough yet. I’d like one day to have a show that I’ve chosen, although working with Nick Serota at the Tate was extremely good.’

Any other British painters you like?
‘My one great artist friend Patrick Caulfied is dead. I live a very isolated life in that all my artist friends are writers.’

Reading anything good then?
‘It’s a book by Julian Barnes about old age. He’s such a close friend that I don’t feel detached enough to judge it, but I don’t entirely agree with the title, “Nothing to be Frightened of”. I’m not nervous about death, but about dying.’

Howard Hodgkin shows at Gagosian Britannia St from April 3.