Oil Sketches

My oil sketches are usually nothing more than oil paintings whose point of finish happened to arrive very early in the art-making process.

As you probably know, I have a special love for brushwork. And whenever I find myself gazing at a sketch--my eyes wandering happily through the piece, retracing and reliving the marks that have somehow found their way onto my canvas--I just put my brush aside and smile.

I'm never quite sure whether it's me who says "finished," or whether the painting is the one who says it to me. But inevitably we agree.

When it happens, you just know.

--Don Haggerty