Friday, December 18, 2009

Week 3




Week 3 and I'm kind of getting back a bit of momentum and learning something in the process (imagine that). The first 2 paintings are the other ones from last week and the next 2 are this week's.

One thing I've learned is that I probably will never be a portrait artist. For one thing it really doesn't interest me and I find it really difficult to make a posed portrait interesting, I do however like painting people just not in a traditional way, it was worth a try though. The second painting I really like, it's from a trip to Prague - I've discovered that I have an affinity to bridges; to paint, photograph, live near, so this could be a theme for a little while anyway.

Monday, December 14, 2009

The Commitment



I finished traveling in mid November (4 new HuHot's in the midwest) and when I got home I couldn't wait to get back to painting canvases. Unfortunately though, I think I lost momentum and was really uninspired, so after hours of meditation (kidding) I had a revelation; that I was lacking in commitment to the constant vigilance that a successful artist needs (or any profession for that matter) and what I really needed was a goal.

So here it is: 100 paintings in a year. Now to some artists that's probably not that big a deal - I have friends who probably do more, but for me it's quite a challenge. I immediately got excited because I realized that this is more about the process of experimenting with subject matter and not worrying so much about content or perfection than it is about the quantity of paintings. As much of a challenge it is given my 2 other jobs it's actually kind of freeing. So far I have 4 done since I started on the first of December - small ones, 2 of them posted here of Italy and I am now working on a very small (for me) portrait of my daughter, alternating with something like a landscape that is much easier for me.

I'll be posting them as I get them done with hopefully some insight on where this is leading me and whether it is still fun or if they've had to commit me to Warm Springs for a nice rest.