Daily paintings 18/6/14 to 25/6/14

Daily paintings 18/6/14 to 25/6/14 .Loving the paint.Getting more organised in the workspace and with cataloging the work. Loving pinterest. selling the odd painting. Can you ever have too many paintings ?

Managed the daily paintings,daily sketches and cards.Enjoyed it all.

Daily sketches 18/6/14 to 25/6/14

Daily painting 20 th June 2014

Daily painting 20th June 2014
Still in Thomas Aquinas Daley's work, I became interested in the contrast between the warm greens and the cool greens. I often sit on the fence between figurative and non figurative work. I like to abstract an element in a figurative work and put a figurative element in an abstract work.But most of all, I like the fact that I can do exactly what I want in the paint.

Daily painting 19th June 2014

Daily painting 19th June 2014.
I became interested in trying to see if I could create a bit of space without having any figurative content. The paintings go their own way always so at the end , I didn't feel that was important. When you paint, you are always looking for a sense of , ' rightness,' maybe the paintings done then but with so many of these, after the resting time, I want to add something else.

Daily painting 18 th June 2014

Daily painting 18th June 2014
I was looking through images of Thomas Aquinas Daley. Love his landscapes/ waterscapes, they are so still, profound and quiet.
My painting was done in the half hour, which is good. As I painted, I became interested in space and tone really. Thomas Aquinas Daley's paintings often have dramatic tonal changes from light to dark. Mine felt as if it had a space in it and I wondered if it is easier to convey space in cool colours.this feels a simple painting but that's fine too.

The upcycling group did us proud on Friday - lots of new stuff down in the showroom.

New upcycled treasures

This is daily sketch 16/6/14, size  19x 43 cm.Acrylic.i have enjoyed doing the sketches so we will see if  I can manage them alongside the daily paintings.I like the idea of doing smaller, less expensive works.

Daily paintings 10/6/14 - 17/6/14.This week has been the first week that really I have felt a little pressure from doing the Daily paintings.I have had a lot of other stuff to do apart from the art and it shows. I have tried to complete a daily sketch alongside the daily paintings. I don't know yet if this has added to the pressure. I need to carry on for a couple of weeks before I make any decisions.I like the idea of doing smaller work, so keep on.

Why am I doing a Daily painting project?

Why do a Daily painting project?

Well I wanted to push along my landscape painting, create a new body of work and ultimately increase my income from my art. The best time in my art career was ,having just left Uni, having a studio at Woodend , Mossley, painting loads and selling them at a low price.It was exiting.

Since then, 12 or so years on , I have sold hundreds of paintings,had a few big exhibitions, had a gallery for a while and still enjoyed my painting. As the sale prices of my paintings increased though , the number of paintings I make has decreased because the number of paintings I sell has also decreased.

With the Daily Painting project, I wanted to do quick half hour paintings that I could sell for a reasonable amount . I also wanted to explore new ways of selling the work ,ebay or etsy or a web site.So, some months on I have applied to have a show at Gallery Oldham , started this blog, joined Face book and published my work on Pinterest where I have now over 2,000 followers all over the world.

Presently also exploring daily sketches and original cards.

Freedom

Freedom is the title of the whole piece. 16 paintings , painted in the 16 days following my Mum's death in 2002. She had been in a half life for many years and her death was a freedom, for her and for us who had to watch on.the paintings though are not sad. They are reflective and still. When I put them up on the studio wall it makes me remember my Mum with warmth.

Why I paint

Someone asked me this week why I paint? The short answer is I love it. I love to paint and to create really but it is a bit of a drug, a tad addictive.

The reasons why I love it are complex. As a child , my Mum was often ill and she encouraged me to draw , paint, knit if I was bored, fed up, in a bad mood etc. she often would create alongside me and I learned to enjoy creating. At school, doing options, ny Mum advised me not to take Art, because , she said,'you can already paint a picture.' so I never did art at school after age 11. I continued to create, sew, knit paint etc all through school and through my jobs.

In my 40's , my Mum had a massive stroke and although she survived it, she was in a half life for lots of years after that. During that time with young children and my Dad to look after, I then took voluntary redundancy from the Civil Service and went back to University to study Fine Art.

My Mum died in my last year at University in 2002 ( her death was a blessing ) and you can see how I dealt with her death - in paint. I painted a painting each day for 16 days after her death. The paintings are not sad, but reflective and I often put them up in my workspace- they make me remember my Mum with warmth.

It seems strange to be writing about my Mum on Father's Day but the day or date isn't significant here. I am in a way just trying to explain the relationship that I have with my art, why I don't have a professional approach to it and don't make a high income from it.

I have got into a situation where I exhibit too myself, by myself, and enjoy it.Hopefully , with the Daily painting project, I will get the paintings out more.

So today, alongside a daily painting, I mounted and framed a daily sketch. what is a sketch ? Well, for me, it's anything I want to call a sketch. Maybe a sketch is sometimes seen as preparatory work for a final piece or a drawing done to keep your drawing skills up. But, for me, it's quick, instant work.I love the woodland sketches of Maurice Sapiro.

I used an Ikea frame and mod lodged newspaper on it. I like the look of newspaper on the frame.

I need to get some work sold in order to replenish the paints I have used.

Part of my job as an artist is to do a few hours as an Upcycling designer at Emmaus Mossley.Emmaus Mossley is a community for previously homeless people who live there and earn their money by selling donated furniture and bric a brac. There are 2 floors of showrooms full of all kinds of stuff.

I run a group of art and craft volunteers on Friday mornings who make my designs and often their own to sell in the showroom .It's lovely and our products are so in demand.These were new card designs I made with first glueing down pastel coloured tissue , then random marks with outliner or gutta, then painting over part of the tissue using inks and acrylic inks.

When I am painting, I don't throw any paint away. I often use card to put the paint down , move it around or take the excess off. So I have piles of card with paint on that I tend to create smaller works and card sized paintings as I go along. I might just try and develop this to in effect create a daily sketch and a daily card too. I will try that this week. Sounds like fun.

Daily paintings 65 to 72. 2 nd J une to the 9 th June.I am trying something different with the blog because it's not working so well for me.It just seems to be  the same as pinterest in so much as it had evolved into just a record of the Daily paintings.

So , I think I am going to use the blog as more of a diary.The daft thing is though I am doing a handwritten diary of the project because I do get a lot out of doing that - I almost check where I am up to in the project.

I love doing this Daily painting project. It massively suits my creative process and acknowledges the fact that I do paint every day. I love it. So this week I just knew I had to paint neutrals. It was a big reaction to putting in an application for an exhibition at Gallery Oldham. I felt that I would need some neutral paintings to balance all the more colourful pieces and almost divide up the weekly blocks of paintings.

I love doing the weekly shows, it is achievable and enjoyable. Pure pleasure really. But the paintings are not being critiqued at all by my artist friends, pretty much no one has seen them only family and non artist friends. One friend last week said they sere kind of mood paintings. I can see that.

Remember the aim of theses paintings is to capture in paint , an instant. A time, a place , a mood, a moment.For me they are exactly doing that - well give or take because a lot of them are worked back into. I haven't yet got it down to the half hour instants that I was aiming for. keep trying.