I had been looking at the work of Matisse.  What I most admire about Matisse is how he created playful paintings that looked like they were painted by a child.  This Expressionist painting depicts a male athlete choosing an unusual pose.  I had fun creating a playful and whimsical expressionist interpretation of this pose of a blond male model. This painting is as much about color and the actual paint as it is about the model.  The idea is to "feel" the "color and texture" of the paint as a sensation in itself.