The pursuit of detail

One of the things about painting that still interests me is the amount of detail an artist pursues.

I tend to be a fairly loose painter often putting in just enough information/detail to have something be recognizable. I like the essence of things, the allusion to objects, and such. Sometimes though it is fun and enjoyable to put in some more definition. I do that, too.

Some painters who I think also pursued this are/were Milton Avery, Henri Matisse, Giorgio Morandi, Janice Nowinski, Lois Dodd to name a few.

There are many artists who definitely want much detail. Who don’t feel something is complete without a greater amount of detail or realism: Rackstraw Downes, Keith Jacobshagen, Mike Lynch, Ralph Goings.

And many somewhere in the middle: Fairfield Porter, Jane Freilicher, Albert York, Albert Pinkham Ryder.

It’s as if our personality dictates this to some degree. Very interesting to me.