A few Mondays ago, an old artist friend and I hopped on Zoom to paint together. We both have a love of Matisse so we picked one of his images to use as a jumping off point. The wonderful thing was how we were both inspired by the same piece in totally different ways.

Our starting reference image isn’t one I was previously familiar with but the signature pattern clash and somewhat abstract female figure got the creative juices flowing.

I wanted to focus in on a female leaning on a table and a vase with flowers. Since the idea was to just have a bit of fun and paint for a couple of hours, I just jumped right in sketched a really rough composition with paint and got to blocking in.

Working on a tinted-gesso primed page in my sketchbook, I painted in oil while Christa painted with gouache. It was a lovely way to start the week!