"I think that's how you advance as a painter — you close various gaps."


"One of the compositional tools we use as painters is something William Dunning calls compositional climax. It basically involves large, low contrast areas—simple shapes around the periphery of the painting—that gradually get higher in contrast and tighter and smaller in detail as you start to reach the focal point, or the climax of the painting...the emanation point of the energy.  There may be little detonations along the way, but ultimately there will be a sort of pressure point—a climax of the composition. Another way I like to describe it is if you take a water balloon and squeeze..."

-Brian Rutenberg