Simone de Beauvoir oil portrait painting work in progress

work in progress

I love how things come full circle. I’ve been wanting to start a black and white series for years now, but never got around to doing it. Probably because I have a long list of series that I’m constantly working on like the bird series (over 200), floral series (over 300), landscape series (356), abstract series (started in 1999, so I’ve lost count), the girl and bird series (30), the sunglasses/glasses portrait series (10ish), the sisters/friends series (15ish), and the series of portraits on 6×6 panel (26). I also have a long list of retired series, such as the Plain Jane Series (200), the $10 series (100+), the Masquerade Mask series (100+), and the Photo Booth Series (20-30). I know there’s probably more I’m forgetting, but my point is, I’ve been a little busy. haha

I recently started to reread The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Satre for the 3rd or 4th time. It led me to looking up his lifelong partner online, Simone de Beauvoir. When I saw the black and white photo of her, so full of emotion, I knew I had to paint her. So the black & white series has finally begun, perhaps? The photo above is only the first layer. Still needs a lot of work, but I’m letting it dry a bit before I continue.

In the meantime, I started painting a black & white of Virginia Woolfe, which if you follow me on IG you’ll see there. BTW, my IG is often times way ahead of my blog because I post more in the moment type things there. Feel free to follow me.