Eric Fischl
The psychological nature of Eric Fischl's work seems right out of my own 1950's sensibility. Life was David Lynch meets "Father Knows Best".

  Alice Neel
Alice Neel's portraits are almost caricatures of her sitters. Portrait painters have a burden to please their sitters, especially if they are commissioned. Unfortunately, that pressure can stifle the painting's originality. It doesn't appear to me that Alice Neel succumbed to this.

British Painters that inspire me:
  Lucien Freud, Tai-Shan Schierenberg, Jenny Saville, Glenn Brown
Unfortunately they have no web sites, but you can find some of their paintings on other art sites. In Lucien Freud, Tai-Shan Schierenberg and Glenn Brown's work, the application of paint is raw but refined. This seems to be an oxymoron but after viewing the work one sees that the paint is applied brusquely, but the cumulative effect of the paint strokes become exquisite portraits. Jenny Saville paints fat women without blushing!

  Xenia Hausner
Xenia's dabs of pure saturated pigment on the flesh is both contemporary and artificial. It reminds me of artificially colored food, artificially colored black and white movies and photos, and women's make-up.

  Vasily SchulZhenko
A Russian Artist that shows at the Maya Polsky Gallery in Chicago. His portrayal of life is colorless...just middle tone grey or darker, but psychologically rich. He does not have a web site, but his work can be accessed on other art sites.