After my show in August last year, I felt like it was time to move on from cattle paintings. Do I love cattle and still occasionally see scenes I would like to paint? Sure, but it was getting to the point where I wasn’t really feeling excited about it the way I used to. So I took some time off to relax and think about what to do next. (As well as catch up on some sewing projects that were put aside.)
Well after 5 months, I’m here to say that I’m still not 100% sure what direction to go or what to do next. In painting and life. So, I went on the internet to look up books for creative inspiration. I decided to check out Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist by Carol Marine. It is a great book! Like Carol, I have been given the advice many times that I should create a painting everyday. For me it was easy to ignore or put off this advice for a later time, because I received the advice from books. It’s incredibly easy to ignore advice from a complete stranger. I think another reason I have never given it a shot is because I tend to work pretty slow and get absorbed into the details. It seemed like there was no way I’d be able to get a painting done in an hour.
Well for whatever reason, I decided this time I’m going to give it a shot. I mean, what do I have to lose? If nothing else, I will get some good practice in and get back into painting. My hope is that it will help me establish a sustainable practice, that I will improve my skills, I will get better at working quicker and maybe sell a few paintings.
So I have decided to give myself one hour at least four days a week to make a painting. (There is a little wiggle room, but I want to challenge myself to keep things to an hour.) I cut up my left over plywood into 8” and 5.5” squares got them primed and ready to go.
Last week was my first week and I will say it started off a little rocky, but thats okay. Here are the paintings from last week.
1 hour painting #1 Chickens and wood pile 8”x8”
This chicken painting was the first one I did. I wasn’t really sure what to paint to start this journey, so I just picked a picture I had of our chickens and jumped in. I think it turned out pretty well. It definitely was a little challenging to get everything down in a hour.
1 hour painting #2- Butter 8”x8”
I don’t know if was from all the baking I did for Christmas, but I decided that I needed to do a butter still life. This one I did run out of time. I spent way too much time on certain parts instead of focusing on the overall composition. It’s not bad, but it did not turn out the way I had in my mind so maybe in a few weeks I will try this idea again.
1 hour painting #3- Cicada 5.5”x5.5'“
I found a dead cicada that magically did not get run over in our driveway a few months ago. Being inspired by my friend Julie Crews who has painted cicadas in the past (or at least one. And I thought it was gorgeous.), I decided I should definitely keep this dead bug so I could paint it. After being a little discouraged by my unfinished butter painting I decided this would be the perfect subject for my next painting. It was so fun and I really enjoyed working on something so simple. So far this is my favorite from this experimental series.
I am having fun and finding it so much easier to get into the studio knowing that it’s only an hour and after that hour, the painting is done. I will continue to share my paintings from each week. I hope you enjoy! Feel free to let me know if you see something you like.