An ageing artist’s unguarded thoughts on what it takes to be great – and why he lacks it

As an ageing artist, Bill Blaine has come to terms with the fact that he’ll never be the next Picasso. For Blaine, this gradual realisation has been artistically freeing, but, as he discusses in Bill Blaine: A Walk Around the House, it hasn’t made his creative life any less complicated. In the film, the US director Jakub Blank pays a visit to Blaine’s home and studio in Mount Dora, Florida, which is full of his original paintings and photographs. As Blaine offers his unguarded thoughts on a range of topics related to the generative process – including what it takes to be ‘great’, and why he lacks it – Blank intercuts the interview with still images of these pieces, born of decades of work and artistic evolution. The result is a refreshing and disarming portrait, with an artistic resonance of its very own.