"I have improved the way in which I paint. The colours are cleaner and there is more energy in the brush work"

A declaration of improvement here points to a deepening of craft rather than a simple change of style. It suggests a painter who has learned to edit, choosing with greater intention what to mix, where to place a mark, and when to stop. Progress becomes a matter of restraint as much as invention: fewer interventions, clearer decisions, a tighter feedback loop between seeing and doing. Technical fluency frees the hand, and with it the capacity to capture sensation quickly and convincingly.

Cleaner colours imply mastery of the palette. They speak of pigments kept distinct, mixtures planned rather than stirred into mud, and a keener sense of how complements vibrate when balanced rather than neutralized. Cleanliness can come from a limited palette, from fresh mixes laid alongside each other, from respecting transparency and opacity, from knowing when to let the ground or a previous layer breathe. It reveals sensitivity to temperature shifts and value structure, so that light reads as light without overcompensation. Such clarity is not merely cosmetic; it is an ethical choice in paint, privileging honesty of hue over compensatory correction.

More energy in the brushwork evokes rhythm, body, and speed. Energetic marks are decisive marks: they arrive with the confidence that the first statement may be the truest. The hand moves with a sense of purpose, describing form and space through gesture rather than laborious contour. Energy often emerges when a painter stops overworking surfaces, allowing broken edges, visible bristle tracks, and directional strokes to do the descriptive heavy lifting. The result is a surface that feels alive, time made visible in the flow of marks. Together, cleaner colour and energetic brushwork signal a mature synthesis: clarity without sterility, dynamism without chaos. They mark the point where technique ceases to distract and begins to transmit, where the act of painting becomes a direct conduit between perception, emotion, and the viewer’s eye.