This delightfully dark and contemplative piece was painted as part of a series of small scale original oils. It’s inspired in part, by the psychological state and land of the “doldrums”, experienced by a character in the novel “the Phantom Toll Booth”. A very ‘blue’ painting in both senses of the word, but also a peaceful, contemplative and mysterious one; a true ‘dream scape’ 🙂
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.
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!
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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
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, 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
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
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
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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Day number 15 of the daily painting challenge. This was going to be a painting and I may still add some painted bits when I have a moment to finish this piece properly. For now here is “Stanley”, a strange character who’s been swimming in my head for a few days. Hopefully before I exhibit all 30 of these daily paintings, I will have time to finish it off:)
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Day number 14 for my painting a day challenge for 30 days is “Masking”, a painting based on the sold drawing with the same name. It was rather nice giving the image colour (the drawing was mostly monotone in colour, apart from the masks). So here it is, daily painting number fourteen. The mask is inspired by a specific palm tree that grows in South Africa, the thorny leaves that fall from the tree always reminded me of some kind of creature:)
So that was day number 14 stay tuned for day number 15! Don’t miss out on any! Sign up to my newsletter and get them in your inbox once a week:)
