Boudoir (Study)

This is a small study for the larger painting I'll be completing in class this week. I've been working more and more on expressing mood and emotion in my paintings and this is increasingly irrespective of detail and perspective. I'm finding classical techniques are often unreliable in conveying what I want to say.

My teacher, Baoping Chen, spoke to me last week about the process of painting first what you see, then what you know, and finally, what you feel. Personally I believe there is one more step: painting what you sense spiritually. I think this is a separate process that involves perception apart from the five senses. This is something I continually grapple with in my art.