How do artists find their subjects?

Looking at art:

When I was teaching art, my students would often say, “I have nothing to draw”. My response was that if they had their eyes open, there were choices all around them, and if they had their eyes closed, there was the world of their imagination to draw from.

Mary Cassatt enjoyed painting women and children. William Turner favored seascapes. Andrew Wyeth painted the landscape where he lived and people who were close to him. Georgia O’Keefe made 100 or more flower paintings. Do you think most artists gravitate to one subject above all others, and if so, why is that? Perhaps one answer is that we select the things that hold our interest and in the end are most dear to us.

Work in the Studio:

Faces and figures have always attracted me above all else. The way people’s faces and bodies express who they are, fascinates me. I particularly love painting my grandchildren. There are ten of my portraits of my grandson and granddaughter hanging in my home. The painting shown here is the latest portrait of Annabelle.

Portrait of Annabelle, Watercolor, 14” x 11”