News — Process

I am most comfortable working in warms: yellow, orange, red, and brown, but for that reason it's important to occasionally go outside my comfort zone. Today that landed me squarely in greens. I still have to put in the background, but I wanted to show proof of studio time.

I'm changing this to a Dog a Day. Starting tomorrow, I'll go back in and start adding more layers. I love the textures already forming, but I'd like to add some collage and acrylic mediums. Also next up, it's time to switch up the colors a bit. So much playing to be done!

This piece isn't quite finished, but it's to the point where I have to let it sit. I've worked myself into some corners, but that presents a good challenge.

The executive director of the Maryhill Art Museum, Colleen Scrafroth, encourage my art business class to define our own success. Maybe success is getting a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Maybe it’s making enough money to live. Maybe it’s a day in your studio, painting. The latter was how one of my classmates defined her success. She loves the process of painting, and it makes her happy. That is success to her.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I love painting in large part because it’s a challenge. It makes me think constantly. It’s analysis and decision. And often in all of that it’s really joyful. And often in all of that it’s really frustrating. I began thinking about my mental state while painting in terms of this classmate’s definition of success and I want it to be more of the second.

So March’s painting a day* has a new twist for me. I’m going to try and use the exercise not just as a way to get into my studio but to begin to teach myself a new discipline within my studio: That of happiness.

It’s strange how just a little shift of focus can change how you see.

*I missed two days in a row due to auction crazy. Auction was a success (and a 17 hour work day) and now I’m back into a more regular schedule. March on!

A painting a day has jump started march for me. In five days I have completed (ish) five paintings. I have earned a ton about my paints and I’m learning more about color. It’s forcing me to paint on nights where normally I’d go to bed at 7PM. (Not from sadness but from actually moving tables all day at work. : )

However, there is a sort of awkward side of it as well. Paintings are not a one-a-day endeavor. At least for me they aren’t. Paintings take time and thought. They aren’t hurried. They are the opposite of hurried. Painting a day, however, is hurried. It creates a bit of internal stress. I can feel myself yelling, “You don’t have time to think about this. Just put a damn color down.” I’m not spending the necessary time in the thumbnail and sketching stage. (There is no thumbnail or sketching phase for a painting a day.) With limited time, it’s just all energy into painting.

So again, there are 300 reasons why this is PERFECT for me...for the short term. For March. And then I need to take what I’ve learned and slow down. Be thoughtful.

The other awkward part of it is that even when I’m focusing on a painting, not all paintings come out. I have hundreds of painting in my studio that will never make it to the walls of this blog because they aren’t good enough. With a painting a day, I don’t have that luxury to pick and choose. Maybe if I created 5 paintings a day, I would like one enough to post...but that luxury is gone when you’re just trying to meet a daily check mark.