A Painting a Day for 30 days

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I keep reading about 100 days of happiness or 5 min of writing a day, or an artwork a day etc. I like the idea not only because it gets people creating and out of their heads but also because it almost always proves something to the person involved, something they were unsure they could do but did it anyway because at the end of the day the only one who can stop or start you…is you. So I have created a challenge for myself. A Painting a Day for 30 Days.

I didn’t think of it myself, I kind of borrowed the idea (it originated with a talented artist called Duane Keiser)  but it seems loads of artists are doing it and it seems to be a great way to delve into your creative juices, come up with new ideas, experiment as well as bring awareness to your art.

Many of the artists doing a painting a day paint still lives and impressionistic images. I guess because of the time involved and the drying time of oils, I will not be able to build up the many thin layers of paint I usually do. I will have to develop a new kind of technique, one that can still capture the surreal essence of the work without me being overly perfectionistic or precious about the details. That is what I look forward to the most.

I plan to split the paintings into fives;

*5 still lives

*5 poetry landscapes (inspired by my favorite poems)

*5 surreal figures

*5 bodies

*5 automatic paintings

*5 you tell me! (I’ll ask on various social media sites “what do I paint today?’ and paint the first answer (using artistic license of course)

This is a kind of plan, but who knows where this will take me. When I am in the studio I will most likely use oils, whereas when I am at home I will be using acrylic (I usually have two projects going on, one at the studio and one at home:) But I am not limiting myself to paint, if the mood strikes I will use mixed media, collage, ink, whatever. Although this may break up the unity of the works as a whole project, I feel that it would be a more useful way to let go and experiment a bit more:)

So I am giving it a go….I’m not going to lie, I know it’s going to be a challenge. I will probably need lots of encouragement and spurring on as the days go by, so please help me out by commenting, liking or sharing my paintings;)

I’m hoping to be able to give this practice the time it needs in the hopes that it will act as a leveling and joy-giving tool:) An added bonus would be people actually liking the work. They will be for sale if anyone is interested.

So I will set a date to start , to give me time to prepare my space etc. Lets say the 24th of February:) And I will create one painting or artwork for every day of the week (I’ll give myself weekends off, maybe….we’ll see). I already bought some small 18x13cm (7″x5″) canvas boards! Yipee! Everyday I will post the painting on my blog .

Any artists that want to join the challenge, let me know and we can support each other!

If you would like to be the first to see the paintings, get them in in your inbox by signing up to my newsletter:)

So here goes!:)