As an artist I'm drawn to a variety of subject matter, from mountain ranges to my wife cooking in the kitchen.  There is conventional beauty as in a sunset or arrangement of flowers and beauty found in the arrangement of shapes, values and subtle changes of color no matter what the subject. The best subjects are the ones I stumble upon when I don't have my paint box, drawing pad or camera (yes, I do use photography). Being unprepared is the best time to exercise your memory and imagination.  The camera is too static, it's hard to break away from the framed images and use your imagination to improve on technique or composition. All the things I do when I'm not painting offer the best chances for exercising my imagination.  Sitting in church and watching the light from the window fall on the side of someones face, the arrangement of vegetables at the market, or traveling through the countryside, which I do several times a year, and seeing all kinds of compositions. During these times I play the scene over and over in my head trying to remember large shapes and temperature contrasts.  Then when I finally get to my motel room, I can put the scene down in pencil or on a 6 x 8 panel in oil or pastel, again just the major shapes that made up the quick glance out of the window.  

I was at the dog park recently, close to sundown. The clouds were beautiful and instead of fooling around with the camera, I could just watch the last 15 minutes of the sunset, making mental notes of simple shapes and color notes, thinking in terms of primary and secondary colors.  Then take my dog home and do a quick 6 x 8 color sketch and do 3 or 4 more to see how I can improve on technique or texture.