This month's painting was all about the process for me. Another of Russell Cederberg's wonderful candid shots, taken at a wedding in France. But before I started to paint, I forced myself to sit down and define what attracted me to the image, why I wanted to paint it, and then to work on communicating that. I realized that what attracted me had nothing to do with a wedding celebration. What I saw in the woman's expression made me think of wariness, of dangers faced and overcome. The child she carries on her back causes her dress to pull back against her chest in an awkward draping, suggesting forces pulling her backward while she strives with them, taking the child with her.

So I began by working with a palette knife to create a ground that suggested a certain amount of wildness, danger, even violence, and shaded it from dark to light. Then I moved the figures to the edge of the canvas, moving out of the painting, and out of the dark.

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