What I Paint

Every artist paints one thing. It may take on lots of different looks but it is one thing. The thing picks you, really. I paint what I like to look at and nothing else. I only paint basically a few faces over and over. Everything I need to say is in those same faces. Everything I need to see is in those few faces. Look at Bonnard. he painted the same people over and over. Of course Modigliani did too. When you find it you are done looking and then you spend the rest of your life  painting that one thing. One idea. the idea that haunts you every day. The idea that you love becomes your constant friend. I try and look at my work objectively but I cannot. it is a part of me and it is my style and how I breath and I cannot change it nor do I want to. The look is my whole life in a few brush strokes.

Someone came into the studio the other day and said Oh you do portraits .and they are all the same person. Well I guess so. At first I was thinking she was not a very astute person but the more I think about it, the more I think she is right. And perhaps that is the way it should be. I think each artist gets one gift of one painting and you spend forever painting it, over and over and you never get tired of it.

Do you get tired of looking at your best friends face? I don’t think so.

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