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A few days ago, I checked out out a couple of books from the library by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The first is titled, "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" and the other is "Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention".
These books discuss the state of focus and complete concentration Thomasin describes as being "on a roll". When painting, we can enter such a state that a whole day can pass by in what seems like very little time. It is very frustrating to be deprived of the time to enter that state of "flow".
I envy the men you speak of, to be able to paint without interruption whenever they wished without worrying about the needs of anyone else. For most female artists with families, this is not very often a realistic option.
Thomasin, I get your point that Francis Bacon was singleminded in his focus on his art and empty paint tubes were of no relevance to him. However, with regard to his psychological state, if his paintings and living conditions are anything to go by, I would say he definitely had some issues - but hey, who doesn't?
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