Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- The Final Five!

Posted on April 16, 2014 Posted in Life as an Artist, Making the thing we ca...Tagged #27, #28, #29, #30, 30 paintings, a painting a day, breast, Daily painitng #26, daily painting, Eye Balling, eyes, female body, fleshy, oil painting, pencil drawing, pink, pink nippleLeave a comment

Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- The Final Five!

Take a look at the final five paintings and a couple of lessons learnt

The daily painting challenge is officially over although its taken me a while to post the pictures! I decided to do a painting challenge called a Painting a Day for 30 Days. Well its taken a little longer than 30 days but I have got 30 artworks to show for it. You can read about the start of it here in this post .

I have super enjoyed and hated the daily painting project. I went through stages of excitement, boredom and depression about it! So dramatic;)

I guess the challenge was an internal one and more about getting on with something without listening to the ego voice in your head than about creating 30 paintings in 30 days.

A few things I realised along the way:

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I realised I have been using time and the amount of time it takes to complete a painting as an excuse not to create as much as I should.
I realised I can produce art at a steady pace but need concrete goals and time limits to do so.
I realised I should paint and make art even during the times when I don’t feel like it (the feeling usually passes once I get started).

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The hurdle was not creating 30 paintings in 30 days, it was and is to overcome my own mind, the feeder of thoughts and ideas but also doubts and insecurities.

The greatest challenge and exhilaration is when I can simply ignore the thoughts, feelings and subtle suggestions that make it appear as though I am stuck, unable to create anything, and discover the total tranquility that is there all the time but shrouded by thought.

So without further a due here are the final five paintings from the painting a day challenge!

Free free to comment or join the Facebook Group here and have a look or share your artworks! You can start at anytime, no judgements!

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Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #25, Rapunzel

Posted on April 4, 2014 Posted in Making the thing we ca...Tagged #25, 30 days, 30 paintings, a painting a day, automatic painting, daily painting, Daily painting 25, female body, fleshy, long hair, painting a day, pencil drawing, Rapunzel, surreal figureLeave a comment

Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #25, Rapunzel

Rapunzel- Inktense on canvas

Painting a day challenge number 25, only five more to go! This daily painting is called “Rapunzel”. Rapunzel was born out of flowey lines and a feeling of monumentality. She seems to tower over everything. Well that’s the impression I get of her:) So here is the whimsical “Rapunzel” in all her greenish blue glory, but first a short paragraph from the story of Rapunzel from the Brothers Grimm:

“Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower in the middle of a forest. The tower had neither stairs nor door, but near the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried:

‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.’

Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress, she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.” Rapunzel, Brothers Grimm

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Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #24, Crack

Posted on April 4, 2014 Posted in Making the thing we ca...Tagged 30 days, 30 paintings, a painting a day, abstracted bodies, Crack, Daily painting 24, feet, female body, fleshy, head in hand, magenta body, pencil drawing, surreal figureLeave a comment

Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #24, Crack

Crack, Inktense on canvas

Daily painting number 24, “Crack” is somewhat inspired by “Nude Descending the Staircase No. 2” by Marcel Duchamp. I wanted to create the impression of many bodies or parts of bodies within the one figure. Where Duchamp’s painting is about movement, mine isn’t about physical movement but more about emotional movement. This figure is abstracted and broken to portray the loss or breakdown of identity and its unreliability. So inspired by Duchamp, here is “Crack”:

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Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #23

Posted on April 3, 2014 Posted in Making the thing we ca...Tagged #23, 30 days, 30 paintings, a painting a day, art, daily painting, Daily painting 23, female body, fleshy, flower of life, many breasted, painting a day 23, pencil drawing, sacred geometry, seed of life, Seeding, surreal figure, totemLeave a comment

Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #23, Seeding

Seeding

Daily Painting challenge number 23. This painting is made up of a strange column-like structure made up of body parts; boobs, buttocks and hints of arms and wings (?). Could be. A very warm and vibrant piece with lots of lime green and yellow. It reminds me of the moment right before an insect takes off. Except for the buttocks being firmly rooted in their place 😉 Here is “Seeding”, I named it thus because of the seed of life geometric symbol at the top as well as it reminding me of a seed pod about to burst and dispurse it’s seeds everywhere 🙂

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Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #21

Posted on April 1, 2014 Posted in Making the thing we ca...Tagged 30 days, 30 paintings, a painting a day, art, automatic painting, daily painting, daily painting 21, female body, fleshy, flower bloomed, hibiscus flower, painting, pencil drawing, surreal figureLeave a comment

Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #21

Flower Bloomed

Daily painting number 21. Down to nine more artworks for the painting a day challenge! “Flower Bloomed” was a kind of automatic painting, I wasn’t really thinking about where it was going, but before I knew it I was seeing themes of growth and progression of the female body coupled with the ideology of youthful sexuality and innocence and a comparison of this growth to a “blooming flower”. So here is painting a day #21!

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Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #22

Posted on April 1, 2014 Posted in Life as an Artist, Making the thing we ca...Tagged 30 days, 30 paintings, a painting a day, automatic painting, daily painting, daily painting 22, dripping body, female body, fleshy, Grasp, melting body, pencil drawing, personal, surreal figureLeave a comment

Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #22

Grasp

I titled this painting for the daily painting challenge “Grasp”. I wanted to give the impression of a body unconfined, uncontrollable and disturbingly soft, unaffected by the lame attempts of the hands to grasp or keep it together. So this is “Grasp”, painting a day number 22 🙂

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Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #20

Posted on March 26, 2014 Posted in Making the thing we ca...Tagged 20, 30 days, 30 paintings, a painting a day, art, daily painting, Daily Painting Challenge, day 20, female body, fleshy, fleshy bodies, fleshy boulders no-2, melting bodies, number 20, painting, painting a day #20, pencil drawing, pink, surreal figureLeave a comment

Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #20

Fleshy Boulders no.2

Daily painting challenge. Day number 20. This challenge has been just that, a challenge, but with only ten days to go I have realised that it has been rather eye opening and is a practice that I would like to continue, although maybe with less pressure next time!

In the same vein as the painting a day #19, this piece is also a mound of fleshy, oozing , melting bodies that seem hard and soft at the same time. To show the amazing qualities of the water soluble pencils I’m using, I took some progress pics. All I have used here is the pencils and water nothing else was added from the first drawing! It was at night so the quality and colour is not the best but here they are:

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Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #19

Posted on March 25, 2014 Posted in Making the thing we ca...Tagged #19, 30 days, 30 paintings, a painting a day, art, boulders, daily painting, Daily painting 19, erotic, fleshy, Fleshy Boulders, inktense, magenta, pencil drawing, pink, stones, surreal figure, surreal landscapeLeave a comment

Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a Day for 30 Days- Day #19

Fleshy Boulders – Inktense on canvas

Today’s painting a day challenge culminated in this piece called “Fleshy Boulders”. They would still hurt if they landed on you!:) To feel compressed, stuck or inhibited by your body is something everyone feels at some stage in their lives and the wish to break free from bodily constraints as well as the sobering realisation that your body is an experiencing vessel for your being, the thing that feels stuck is your ego brain not your being. Death to the ego brain!!!! ;). Here is daily painting number 19:

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Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a day for 30 Days – Day #18

Posted on March 25, 2014 Posted in Making the thing we ca...Tagged 30 days, 30 paintings, a painting a day, angel's trumpet, art, bright green, Brugmansia, daily painting, Daily painting 18, green, moon flower, number 18, painting a day 18, pencil drawing, purple, purple flowerLeave a comment

Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a day for 30 Days – Day #18

Study of Brugmansia 2

For this daily painting I decided to do another study of one of my favorite flowers, Brugmansia, or “Angels Trumpets”, this time in a pinkish purple colour. These flowers are commonly mistaken for Datura or “Moon Flowers” although they are just as poisonous! I am including these flowers in a painted surfboard I am working on and I wanted to practice the flowers in my daily painting challenge before attempting them in oils on my surfboard. So here is my painting a day for day 18, a study of Brugmansia no.2 :

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Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a day for 30 Days – Day #17

Posted on March 24, 2014 Posted in Making the thing we ca...Tagged 30 days, 30 paintings, a painting a day, angels trumpets, art, Brugmansia, daily painting, Daily painting #17, day 17, fleshy, flower study, moonflower, number 17, painting a day, pencil drawing, surfboard art, yellow flowerLeave a comment

Jessica Ballantyne’s Painting a day for 30 Days – Day #17

Study of Brugmansia

For this daily painting I decided to do a study of one of my favorite flowers, Brugmansia, or “Angels Trumpets”. These are commonly mistaken for Datura or ” Moon Flowers” although they are just as poisonous! I am including these flowers in a painted surfboard I am working on and I wanted to practice the flowers before attempting them in oils. So here is my painting a day for day 17, a study of Brugmansia amongst dripping globules. Drawn in Inktense pencils (water soluble) on water colour paper:

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