So here it is, my first “State of the Art” wrap-up for week 5, aka the week ending January 31.
I meant to post this on Monday, but work and not feeling good-ness got to me, so it’s a day late. This week ended the 30-in-30 Painting Challenge hosted by Leslie Saeta that I took part in for the first time this year. I was hesitant to do this at first but decided to jump in and see what I could push myself to learn. And I did learn some things, mostly that doing a painting a day, even if it’s a small quickie painting, can be time consuming. By the end of the month, I started to feel pressured and obligated to finish what I’d started and that was coinciding with end-of-month activities I do for work (it’s my busiest time of the month) and that dragged me down, to the point that I didn’t care if I finished some of my in progress pieces.
I did expand on some techniques that I liked and want to keep incorporating in my art going forward, so that’s one of the pluses from the challenge. On the downside, I started to feel like I was doing a piece just to fill the day’s “quota” and not because I wanted to. The weekends were easier because I could do several pieces at once and work ahead, but during the week… not so much. I do think it taught me how to be a bit more flexible and free in what I do since I tend towards structure and nice lines and not messy most of the time. Letting myself be messy is fun, especially the last two pieces I did when I dragged out the acrylics and just slopped paint around.
Here are the last three pieces I actually completed for the 30-in-30 Challenge. I have three others that are still WIPs (for days 23, 24, and 29) but since none is close to being completely, I’m not going to count them. Finishing 24 pieces, even if some were tiny, is a damn good success, if you ask me. Tomorrow I’ll post a collage of all the finished pieces.
Day 26 – “Nebula”
Watercolor and white ink on paper
7.5″ x 7.5″
Nebula | Watercolor and white ink on paper | 7.5″ x 7.5″ | January 30-in-30 Challenge
Day 27 – Abstract (Green)
Acrylic on illustration board
9″ x 10″
Green | Acrylic on illustration board | 9″ x 10″ | January 30-in-30 Challenge
Day 28 – Abstract (Blue)
Acrylic on illustration board
10.25″ x 7″
Blue | Acrylic on illustration board | 7″ x 10.5″ | January 30-in-30 Challenge