This new body of work was inspired by looking at paintings by the great Russian painter Chaim Soutine (1893-1943). La Motta has observed that "in looking at his work I couldn't get his red out of my head and in the studio I immediately began a bouquet painting and this initiated a new series of memory-based works. My work has always dealt with that elusive terrain between
direct visual observation and remembrance and I work intuitively. The act of painting for me informs the development of the image and I was also responding to the visceral and physical quality in Soutine's paintings."

Janice La Motta arrived in Hartford 40 years ago to attend the Hartford Art School and after graduation worked for Real Art Ways, served as Curator at the New Britain Museum of American Art and spent 18 years as Owner/Director of Paesaggio Gallery and La Motta Fine Art. She has just recently been named Executive Director/Curator of the Woodstock Art Association and Museum, Woodstock, NY