The real joy of painting for me is working directly from life and on location, starting with small study sketches. I feel a painting is successful when I first envision the result, then make that happen. If a painting succeeds without visualizing it in advance, I consider that to be luck. Even though I work from life I don’t feel obligated to represent exactly what I see. I often move, add, or change things to suit my composition. I’m like a fisherman, I don’t always tell the truth, but instead tell the story the way I’d like it to be.
