I enjoy alternating between painting the figure and landscape.  Painting the figure hones my drawing skills, and landscapes allow me to play a bit more with form, color and brushwork.  I’d love to bring that same fluidity to my figure work (and I have achieved that occasionally), but I have trouble being too loose in the figure, because I loose form too quickly.  There are some artists that do this extraordinarily well, and they inspire me (eg, Dan McCaw).  I’m working on a series of figure paintings for a possible show in San Francisco this year.  Cheers!