Memory: Project 2

Our next assignment in painting class is to answer the question: How would you transform the recollections of past experiences into a painting?
We are to explore the concept of personal or cultural memory. I was thinking of making a painting of my first childhood memory: I was sitting on the floor in the kitchen at our house on Newcastle. I was playing with a matchbox car on the linoleum tile and my mother was washing dishes in the sink. She had her back to me, but I remember she was wearing shoes and had a long skirt on. The sun was shining through the window and I said proudly: "I'm three years-old."
I want to use this Matisse still life as an inspiration to create a stilted and active space.
I haven't decided how I want to represent my mother because I feel like my memory of what she looked like is false: my mother wasn't a cliched 1960s housewife, she was a working mother and wore jeans. I'll probably draw from Tuymans or Borremans.

Matisse, Still Life with Magnolia, 1941

This painting might act as a nice tribute to my mom who died five months ago now.