A couple of sketchbook pages from a photo I⁸ took of some terns. No drawing, trying to capture the shape directly, simply.
I'm always coming up with ideas of things to try to make my paintings, or maybe my painting practice, better. (My follow-through often leaves something to be desired.)
Always comes down to, basically: paint more. Sometimes I think I'm hampered by wanting to produce a "painting."
Looking at the work of artists whose work I love--eg Lois Dodd or Richard Diebenkorn, and so many others--it seems to me their works must be the end of a process of distillation. (Hockney in Yorkshire just went out and nailed it en plein air, but by then he had his style; he had internalized the disillation!)
Through observation and then practice, they get the essence, and a painting that is great because you can almost feel the work and thought that went into it--but you can't see it.
