This profusely illustrated book brings together the voices of numerous artists, past and present, to reveal a fresh, multi-dimensional perspective on the medium. The author draws on interviews carried out over more than three decades with, among many others, Frank Auerbach, Georg Baselitz, Lucian Freud, Paula Rego, Bridget Riley, Jenny Saville, Frank Stella, Wayne Thiebaud and Luc Tuymans, talking about how they work, the different routes by which they became painters, their contemporaries and predecessors. With a painter’s insight they discuss predecessors such as Titian, El Greco, Edward Hopper, Suzanne Valadon, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Paul Klee and Eugène Delacroix. ‘It is no easier, I’m convinced, to make a good painting than to find a diamond or a pearl; it requires effort, and you stake your life as an artist on it.’ – Vincent van Gogh