The horse's mouth (1944)

Gulley Jimson needs food, paint, space and opportunities to work, and is willing to make himself other people's problem to obtain them. Cary's comic painter turns artistic vocation into a constant practical scramble. His energy is entertaining, while his destructiveness keeps the romance of the unmanageable artist open to criticism. Read it for the awkward material dependencies of making, including the question of who pays when the maker insists that the work comes first.