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 #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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Daily painting number 13! I fell a bit behind with the daily painting challenge! But I have picked myself up and started again from daily painting number 13. This oil painting is called “Bug” very simply because it reminded me of one after looking at it when it was finished. I thought it looked like a praying mantis. It was going to be something else entirely but it wanted to be a “Bug” so there we go.
I took these photos in my studio. hence the messy palette and brushes! If you want to get updates on my paintings once a week, please sign up to my newsletter!
Day four of the Painting a Day challenge. I literally spent the entire day painting this surreal figure and it was such a joy! I like representing abstract thoughts and feelings as tangible figures or creatures. This is a surreal landscape with a figure. I titled this daily painting “Gathered Moss” after I had completed it. I realised it resembled feelings of stagnation and anxiety and the proverb “A rolling stone gathers no moss” sprung to my mind.
I used three different greens with blue and yellow in the rocks which gave them a lovely mossy look.
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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 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!
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