A New Series Has Started

I have a couple of new series of paintings in my head that I would eventually like to work on but I don't feel like my current one is finished yet so starting them has been difficult. There are still MANY paintings I would like to add to my "Forgotten Memories" series. It's hard start on something new when what I am working on is "working" and I have plenty more inspiration for new paintings. But open studios is almost here and I thought it would be a good time to experiment with one of my series that I have been thinking about for awhile now.

In my current series I have been working on figures with no backgrounds, focusing on the individual memory and not the surroundings. This time I will be doing the opposite. I will leave out the figures and work on just the environment they occupied for that brief moment when the photo was captured. Anything that is not part of the figure will be left in the composition this time. These will be small paintings, 10" x 10", for now, until I decide whether or not these pieces are successful or not. Plus for open studios I like to have smaller affordable pieces that are more accessible to the general public who may not have the funds to buy a large painting.

These are still works in progress but here are two pieces that I started yesterday. I want to paint pretty loosely for this series since I have been doing the opposite for "Forgotten Memories". It's good to change things up every once in awhile and I think this body of work will look better with more gestural strokes. We'll see if I can stick to that.

I don't know if anyone recognizes the above image, but I painted this girl with the very stiff skirt for "Girl with Bear" (see previous post for the image), which is the painting that Joanne Matttera talked about in her Sidebar Show on the encaustic conference blog. I like using both parts of the photograph, the figure and the background, as two separate paintings. It feels like two puzzle pieces that fit together.

Here's another work in progress:

This one looks really rough at the moment, it is a woman holding a small child, but I am excited to paint the tree. I really love trees and haven't had a chance to paint them anymore with my current series.