Simple Apple study - done with my new Solux Daylight Light ( small, bright, white - awesome!).. In Watercolor on paper..

"I am Bursting!" Watercolor on Paper 7" x 9" 2014 - from the live model.

What should it be ?

I find the biggest things I am asking myself as a painter and art-person ( I don't take easily to the word "artist") is this:  What should the work be ?  What should I be ?   There are fractals and iterations of answers for these questions.

How realistic ?  How faithful to what I see ?  What pleases me when it's complete ?  Is it the hard effort of a finely rendered work ( yes) ?  Is it the heroics of a few lines and good design-thinking which propel beautiful shapes ( yes!)..  Is it the quality of the stroke of the paint and  how it meshes and mingles with the paint nearby ? ( absolutely yes)..  

I am blessed to have studied under amazing artists - and many of them - while having similar roots ( Ted Seth Jacobs and Frank Reilly seem like the primogenitors largely) they each have an aesthetic - and they are ALL valid.  These slightly shifting aesthetics argue in my head as I work sometimes ( often ? always ?); and I am working to create a more singular aesthetic for what I do.  How long will this take ?  All my days I should think...

If you read this far - you are kind.  You probably feel some of these things as well ( but based on your own path and trajectory).   Some current thinking - below - A figure based on several references - Acrylic paints on watercolor paper. 12" x 16"

"Wuthering Heights 2014"