An extract from the ‘Narrative’ episode of the Malachite TV series Looking into Paintings, 1985, made for Channel 4 in collaboration with The Open University and directed by Charles Mapleston, in which Creffield describes vividly how best to appreciate paintings.
‘If you were an animal lover and you were going into the country and you wanted to see all the little birds and things you can blunder through the countryside and never see a thing.
‘So what you have to do is sit down for ten minutes, and all the creatures begin to sing, and become used to your presence.
‘And I’m not speaking sentimentally or foolishly [to say] that it’s exactly what you have to do with a painting.’
Courtesy of Malachite Art Films. A DVD with the full film, as well as The Invisible Recorder, documenting Creffield’s cathedral drawings, is available at through the Malachite website.