I don't think money can help you become a better painter, for sure. You can have all the studios you want; it won't help you make a better painting.

Resources can't buy discipline

There's something almost liberating about this, especially if you've ever felt stuck waiting for the right conditions. We live in a culture obsessed with removing obstacles—better equipment, fancier workspace, more resources—as if difficulty itself is the problem. But Doig is pointing at something harder: the actual work of getting better requires something money can't buy.

This applies way beyond painting. You can have the premium gym membership and still not build the discipline to show up. The best keyboard won't make you a better writer if you're avoiding the blank page. What Doig is really saying is that resources are almost neutral. They're useful, sure, but they're not the bottleneck. The bottleneck is you—your willingness to struggle, to make bad work, to sit with confusion.

There's a slightly uncomfortable flip side though: if money won't help, then the person with fewer resources isn't actually at a disadvantage in the ways that matter. That's humbling. It also means you can stop waiting. The studio you need might be smaller than you think, and what you're actually waiting for is permission to begin.