When the great American painter Philip Guston died, his family discovered an enormous quantity of tubes of the red, black, white and yellow ochre oil paint that he worked in. They were stockpiled in cupboards and cabinets.
I expect he’d bought them at moments when he’d felt he could afford to, against the times to come when he couldn’t. Hard times are an inevitable part of the artist’s life. As Anthony Green RA told me, two or three times in fact, there are many wellknown artists that you might imagine are living the high life going home to a supper of half a can of baked beans.
If you don’t immediately spend any money you make from selling work, laying in some tubes of good-quality paint is an investment that is going to pay off when you’re in the trough of poverty. Unfortunately, having money often comes with having no time to paint.