"It's difficult to know in just looking at the work (and decency prohibits illustrating the point) that the work always comes from a session with a live figure model. In fact the live model is the direct inspiration and is vital to the work.
I am eternally grateful to the those who have shared the splendor of their being (in sometimes uncomfortable poses) through the years that I might have the joy of painting them. It truly is the particulars of your individual form, grace, and presence that becomes visible in each work, even when it no longer seems recognizable as you! Thank you, all."
"...the aim of the painter [is] to identify himself with the object depicted, that is, to relate that in himself with that in all things...
the painter has to experience the rhythm of life to be able to express it in his work by means of the rhythm of the brush...
the brush will then be swift and sure, setting down only the essential stokes, in some places expressing by 'absence of brush and ink.'"
The Way of Chinese Painting, by Mai-mai Sze