Just completed, "A Balanced Meal" Oil on canvas 26" x 24" $4,200

This painting is high realism with lots of detail but I still have incorportated plenty of soft, blurred and lost edges. Why? To add some mystery, movement and softness that paradoxically can make it look more real than super sharp photographic realism. I am guessing the reason this happens is because our eyes do not see every square inch of what we are looking at in sharp focus all at once.

Think about how we look at things or a view. Our eyes move from one point to another, focusing in on each point one at a time and letting the rest go slightly out of focus. A good painting composition will do the same thing for you. There is a main point of focus ...