Howard Hodgkin "doesn't allow anyone to see him at work" and "turned the canvases with their painted faces to the wall"1 when photographer Eamonn McCabe was in his studio. I find something comforting in a painter still doing this after decades of critical acclaim.
Hodgkin's answer to that tricky question, when is a painting finished, is: "...when the subject comes back, when what has caused the painting to be made comes back as an object."2
References:
1. Artists and Their Studio, McCabe and McNay, p96.
2. 'I hate painting', interview with Colm Tóibín, The Guardian, 13 May 2006.
Hodgkin's answer to that tricky question, when is a painting finished, is: "...when the subject comes back, when what has caused the painting to be made comes back as an object."2
References:
1. Artists and Their Studio, McCabe and McNay, p96.
2. 'I hate painting', interview with Colm Tóibín, The Guardian, 13 May 2006.