It is said that writing can best be done when you write about what you know.....the knowing. I would like to further that notion by stating that, for me, I paint best when I paint what I know. It is difficult to prop myself up with my easel in unfamiliar surrounds and try to tell a visual story....the story that combines the surround with the feelings that it conjures up inside me. My feelings are inseparable from the view. Likewise, when painting from an unfamiliar model, my results are correlate to my feelings about that model. If he/she is someone with whom I have many positive shared experiences, the end product shows emotion and commitment. Even a new model will yield positive results is I feel an emotional accessibility. I have some pretty bad paintings of models who where whiny, stiff, or unable to relate some of their emotional selves. This correlation presented itself after many years of painting. And so, for me, for commitment, I chose subjects with which I have an emotional bond....landscapes, people or objects. Those are the stuff of which I am willing to go the extra mile. "Narrow Bridge" is a scene that I pass several times a week....just down the street from me. The scene may go unnoticed my many. For me, it is home. Pure bliss.
