Hello All
Time to update you on what I am doing these days. I have finished a year of One a Day paintings- they turned out to be a success in many ways. First it was a great lesson in discipline with artwork being the focus. Second it taught me to look for interesting things in the ordinary. I would walk a similar route each day through my neighborhood and paint what caught my attention that day. With the changes in seasons you would think this would be easy but it turned out to be a test. With several grey days, or days with little to no light, rainy days, windy days, snow days, blizzard days and the like it was not always easy to find beauty. Some times I had to get creative- like the end of April 2009 when I just could not paint one more snow scene-so I turned to the returning birds of spring and attempted to seek out a new one each day and paint his or her portrait.
Thirdly I found the size of the "dailies" to be a challenge, at first the small 4 x 6 size was a little like a puzzle, it was complex and interesting, but it soon became too small. I switched in August to a larger format of 8 x 10 and the world opened up once again.
What I didn't expect from my One a Day experience was the amount of growth I achieved.
Not just in experience with the brush but in the maturity of my eye for color and light, contour , texture and perspective. WOW. What a great adventure.
I would encourage everyone to take on a challenge each year- daily painting or any other creative outlet. You will end up in places you never dreamed you would go.
For 2010 I am taking some of my favorite One a Day paintings and working from them as a thumbnail for much larger pieces of art. The size will be 36 x 48, 36 x 60, and 36 x 40 inches, and they are going to be more expressive and abstract. I have challenged myself to do 2 paintings per week until April when I will be hanging them in a show in Manulife Place, Edmonton. Stay tuned for details and updates.
Until then
Happy Painting- Jeri Lynn Ing
