Lessons from Matisse oil #203 6"x6"

A young artist learns from one of the modern masters who reduced the lessons of his formal training into areas of flat color shapes, somewhat like a child's work. It gives pause to the concept of 'who is the master?' I put a lot of work into the Matisse painting of "The Young Sailor II" then realized it was drawing all the attention and I wanted the focus to be on the two patrons, so I kind of grayed it and mushed it together....not as representational but it works better for my painting.