I did these two small round paintings as part of a larger series. Both are 11.75″, oil on linen panel. The series has 12 paintings and these are the middle two.

The first painting, Observing the Past, is about Persephone, or the personification of renewed life, looking back upon the past as the cinders of what was float past her.

Observing the Past

The second painting, Discerning the Future, shows the same woman now looking to the future and trying to see what lies ahead. The whole series is about the decline and reprise of beauty in art. When I get the rest of the paintings done I will post them all together.

Discerning the Future

When the whole series is hung together in a line on a wall Observing the Past will appear to be looking at the first five paintings and Discerning the Future will be watching the last five paintings.

I recorded a time-lapse of the painting as part of a workshop for ImagineFX Magazine. Here is a compressed clip, but if you are interested the longer, annotated video along with painting steps and explanations of the steps and materials you can find them in ImagineFX issue #169

If you want to see some more time-lapses and in progress steps of other paintings you can find more on my Instagram account, @howardlyonart

Thanks for giving my post a read!

Howard