I started with a plein air painting of a woman on the shore in Rogers Park taking artistic liberties painting her primitively nude and combining it with the influence of paintings by some of the masters. Inspired by Picasso reworkings of Manet's Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, intuitively I wanted to paint my own versions. I painted the woman who is wading in the water in the background of Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l'herbe wading in Lake Michigan. I added my nude woman from my plein air painting and two men (same man) at the beach in Rogers Park. It is as if the three people who were sitting in the foreground of Le déjeuner sur l'herbe stood up. This is part of a 3 painting series plus one plein air study painting