Week one

I am starting this series with a painting of an older woman who I took a photo of while visiting a Mission Ribas class. The women’s granddaughter is sitting next to her. I was told that her granddaughter accompanies her to all of her classes. The photo attracts me because the women’s expression is very kind and happy.
I am trying to use the colors from the photo, as well as the shapes and perspective. I am hoping to use a painterly impressionist style, but of course that is hard when the focus of the painting is faces. I am really tired of painting realistically and smoothly, but I am still stuck in the habit. Perhaps I need to start something very abstract at the same time, to counter my tendencies. I think that I need to add more to the painting that I am working on than is already there, but the question is what that is. It is already a very crowded picture, so what then would balance it out?
Is it enough to stick with a very simple color palate, and use big strokes?

I have started reading El Pequeno Nicolas. It is very slow going because my vocabulary is so limited. It is good practice to be reading the different tenses, and to be seeing the pronouns so often.