Paul Gauguin says (before painting) “I shut my eyes in order to see.”
I think he may mean that he turns off his “world” or "mind". I like to do this by using music and often will choose one artist or genre to listen to throughout the process of a painting.
I paint these figures from sketches. Many of them are large and I love to paint large. I allow music to inspire the shapes and colors, hoping that the collaboration will yield something unexpected.