'In the end, my hope is that a person looking at one of my paintings will feel happier, not more sad, closer, not more isolated. I hope they will be relieved from the pressure of their anxieties for a brief moment. The world is frightening and beautiful. We artists are fools. I think my job as a foolish artist is to entertain and give joy in the best way I can.

Three sheep live at the bottom of the valley by my house in Germany. They have immense dignity and self-possession, it seems like thousands of years of wisdom gleam from their eyes. And yet it’s absurd, not something one puts in a serious painting. But I am serious. I love everything about this sheep. The fireflies came later, for a bit of magic. If you can, why not? I believe less and less in restraint. We should go all out. It’s a jostling, dog-eat-dog world out there. But this sheep is just beautiful, and it doesn’t care. To quote the writer Saki, "It was obvious that boring questions lay outside his scheme of life."'