I had been really hyper-focused on the composition and precision with 81 & 82 that when I sat down to do this one I wanted to just paint. No drawing on the canvas, no underpainting, no sketching. So I started and it came to life pretty fast. I feel good about this one and it’s probably the closest I can get to what’s in my head for these. It’s nice that it happened on this one too because it’s a (relatively) big, 16? x 8? stretched canvas.

It’s paintings like this that make me think this year has been worth it. Going back and looking at No. 1 there is just a real difference. There is no way possible I could have sat down in January and done something like this. It’s like being on a diet for 11 months and finally realizing you’ve lost weight.