Tomato Girl Painting - Work in Progress

I was going through some paintings I began last year and set aside and found a tomato girl painting I'd begun. It was on canvas. I don't usually paint on canvas - I usually paint on masonite panels or cradled wood panels. Seeing the painting made me think about a conversation I had with my younger sister on the phone about last year's Tomato People paintings.

"So.....why Tomato People?" she asks. I think she's thinking, Should I be concerned?

"Why not?" says I.

"Well....er.....they are a little bit strange, Dix."

"Well, actually, I wanted to paint something inspired by an Ammi Phillips painting that wasn't a direct copy. So I decided to flip the colors around and put the red on top and the lighter colors on the bottom. I wanted to refer to folk art paintings but in a whimsical way."

"Ohhhhh. "

I essentially ended up repainting this whole painting. She started off red, then I painted her green, then I went back to red again. And then before I knew it she had a mask on - where'd that come from? Is she getting ready for the Masqued Ball? I wonder if I'll get a call from my sister?

As you can see, I have a very fancy palette. I use a masonite panel and wrap it with tin foil. Then when I want a clean palette I can just take it off and then recover.

Sometimes I play around with the paint program
and see what might happen if I changed something.
For instance, I can try out a black mask
and it totally changes the feeling of the painting.