Looking at:

I've been looking at the following artists for various things:

Szalbocs Veres- painterly quality, color pallette:


Philip Guston- feeling of flesh:

Frank Auerbach- gesture and working with impasto:

I've been working hard in my studio, but still dissatisfied with what I've been producing. I feel like I start to make some moves forward, and then I halt or go backwards. I'm working and reworking several paintings, trying to push myself out of where I'm at right now. It's generally frustrating and disappointing, but really exciting when I feel like I've done something good, even if it's one small area of a painting. Overall though, I have no idea where I'm taking these paintings other than away from where they are now.

Here is a quick study I did on paper:


And here's a larger piece that's gone through many changes and is still in progress: