Well, most certainly I am influenced by the Renaissance period. i am a great admirer of Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and Botticelli, to name a few. And Ghirlandaio, Rafael's teacher, is one of my all time favorites. He was a forerunner of the Rennaissance.
Thank you for saying my results look easy. I work hard at that!

Wasn"t that an amazing period in time?

There is a reason for cropping a subject the way I do. If I want to portray another world, cropping it like, as you say, a photograph, it can give the illusion of a window. That way, when you see one of my images cropped like that, you consciously (but more often than not subconsciously) imagine the other world extending beyond the frame of the ... See Morewindow.
In other words I am using the viewer's imagination to expand my illusion!
How long does it take to do a painting? Thinking about the idea and doing sketches can take weeks. And then there is the painting time. If everything goes very, very well, depending on the subject matter, a small painting can take me 10 long days. If I run into trouble, much longer. But I never work linearly. I can do a week sketch and then set it aside for a year.
Good luck on your art!

Thank you Michael for the reply. I listened to your comments on one of your videos about how you wished to invite the audience in, so now the cropping makes sense. More often than not, I worry about the time it takes me to paint a picture, probably because I've been constantly disciplined about time and money, but the perfectionist inside me never... See More seems to quit. I guess I need to draw more and contemplate the meaning and feeling that I am trying to convey. Once again Michael, thank you, and more questions will follow at a later date. Namaste!

Another excellent piece!! Beautiful!

Just breathtaking!

Very Interested. LOVE IT

I can't wait to see it, I'm sure it's beautiful

I love that you posted that to FB. It has an interactive feeling to it - like we're waiting for a mutual friend to arrive in the U.S.

I'm yet another person in love with your images, you make the world a more enchanting place. Great to hear about the new book.