Just to paint a representation or design is not hard, but to express a thought in painting is. Thought is fluid. What you put on canvas is concrete, and it tends to direct the thought. The more you punt on canvas the more you lose control of the thought. I've never been able to paint what I set out to paint.
In: "Three Hundred Years of American Painting" Alexander Eliot; New York: Time Inc., 1957, p. 298 - 1941 - 1967 (Art)