Rethink re the Dailies

So, had a deliberate couple of days away from the paintings. One of the things with the Daily paintings is that I haven't had time built into the process to think about the project or the direction. Interesting.

So today I think I should just think through and try out different arrangements / suggestions etc.

If I was doing a big exhibition in a big gallery space, it think that if all of the walls were covered with the square 52 cm paintings it would be repetitive,monotonous. I need to have different sizes, shapes, frames or mounts. So, taking into account what the art group feedback was,maybe have a think around display.

This first photo was of the groups work, and mine,with a variety of sizes, frames etc. the one below is a photo in the Pop up gallery .... Of my smaller, more varied landscape work. I am absolutely clear that I don't want to do smaller than 52 cm square work. Of course I don't mean sketches or 12 cm sq pieces, I like doing those. I just don't want to be framing etc. Have a think.

The one below is a thought of alternating or introducing pieces of the same size but with a much smaller image.

This is one layer of paintings with a line of small paintings underneath.Try it.

The one below has boards painted white placed inbetween the Dailies, with or without words on. Try it.

Or put the titles of the paintings on.........

Tried the green but preferred it on the smaller work

This one above is the first of me trying to just put a smaller image in the middle of a 52 cm sq board.Mmmmm

And the second More mmmmm........keep going

These below are the ones that the Art group felt needed to be separated. They were viewing them as a display which wasn't my intention. I see them just as a collection of paintings in similar colours .I wouldn't have neccessarily put them up like this in a gallery space.

That said, when it tried the recent graphite works inbetween the more colourful dailies, I thought they wouldn't work but they so did. Need to try this out on the wall at Emmaus.

Right so did a massive prime and tried out different variations of a theme,the first try was to include a smaller board inbetween the Dalies, painted white. It worked.

The stage further was to try some text or words on those board. That worked too. I liked the light grey of the graphite and the text. I would have to try other fonts though if I did this. This font seems a little childlike. I tried with handwritten text too but didn't like that.

Tried just one layer of paintings and then the small ones underneath. That didn't work so well.

 Tried the very pale drawings just on their own on the black wall and that worked too.

So after a mornings work , it felt good to explore the options. Will try some just on paper instead of doing the drawings on painted boards. That seems worth a try. 

Also thought though that the stuff I had tried this morning ( Sunday ) seemed to reinforce the paintings being part of a whole rather than individuals. Maybe my next step now is to try and frame the paintings in a very individual way to show that they will stand up on their own.

Art group critique

Today we had a shared lunch and the chance for the Art group to look at and critique my Daily paintings.I wasn't sure if I wanted anything from them , I just knew I am finding the Dailies a bit harder than I did. I had an open mind to what they said ( she says )

They were offering suggestions of how to sell the paintings.
Anyway feedback was;
Maybe too many paintings displayed together overshadowing individual paintings.It was hard for them to see just one painting in the display.
Try different sizes.
Try bolder colours, my paintings are generally muted colours.
Try breaking up the display with faces.
Some of the displays don't work as well as others.
There are a lot of paintings.
They liked them displayed in the frames.
Perhaps need different colours of frames.
Try putting my energy into perhaps selling a painting a week

Interesting.
Of course, the art group saw each space as a display of paintings, whereas in my head , there are only a couple of actual,' displays,' the rest are just spaces to hold paintings, sometimes a collection of paintings using similar colours. Interesting.

What to do ? Go in the studio in the morning and paint what I want.
I have decided not to continue with the Dailies after April. Although I have massively enjoyed them, they have taken up a lot of time and energy , which needs to be put into selling as much as painting !
Maybe think of doing weekly paintings - yep sounds good.

Richard Whadcock

Looking at Richard Whadcock. He is a British painter with a studio in Brighton.

Tone, tone, tone. Lovely gradation of tone.

What do I think ?

Serious

Georgeous

Paints in oils, takes a lot of time and layers

Tonal gradations are wondrous

Stillness captured

Very masculine

Very plain and important

Completely tunes into his work

Distilled

Mmmmmmmmm food for thought. Just try a few small ones to explore tonal gradations in my own work.

These are 8 of the greyscale Daily paintings displayed together.

These are this mornings effort, small around 14 cm sq pieces.......nothing like Richard Whadcock ......well that's good really. Remind me slightly of Tania Rutland. Revisit her..........

This was the latest where I introduced green . Works too. Making the first layer in a very dark brown acrylic and then introduce the green. No graphite. Try on the bigger boards. But the thought of all the priming. Get over yourself ......

Art group coming to my studio tomorrow to critique my Dailies. Had a major tidy up, which was 

long overdue and just having a review of the Dailies from my point of view.

When I started theses Daily paintings in April 2014, I wanted to;

Move my painting on

Create a new body of work

I increase my online presence 

Ultimately increase my income from my art

Now, 10 months on , I have;
Massively enjoyed it, although flagging at the moment
Learnt so much about the paint and paint application

Meandered my way through lots of different approaches to my work, the constant being the size, ie
52 cm sq
Mainly mastered the cataloging and storing of the work, with a few blips
Massively increased my online presence with 3,500 followers on Pinterest
Enjoyed the blog which has been my online record of the project

So, what next.........mmmmmm

Facebook art challenge

Ok so still the muse escapes me and the Dailies require a superhuman effort to complete. How strange when I have enjoyed them sooo much over this year. Trying today to catch up ..... Have half painted disasters all over the studio..... well maybe exaggerating a little !

An artist I know had nominated me for the Facebook art challenge, which I started yesterday. The challengs is to post three pieces of work a day, for five days. I hadn't understood though that they didn't need to be done on that day , so I was trying to make new work.

Anyway , I decided to deconstruct a piece made from hundreds of video cassettes made a lot of years ago. I called it , ' a big motherboard, ' looking at circuit boards. I cut up old photos of my paintings and old paintings too and had an exhibition at a Gallery a Oldham with my Art group, ' Saving 1,000 videos from landfill. Deconstructing the piece prompted me to remember, mainly the making of the pieces.

So, I made small pieces from pieces of the motherboard. They made me smile and I may use them for cards on this Etsy shop I always intend opening. 

This was the display of graphite or greyscale paintings put up in Emmaus. I still feel these pieces

have a lot more to give yet so back to greyscales.

Two more very obscure Daily paintings ........ Interesting .......well to me anyway.

Three small pieces on card. I started with graphite only but then went into acrylic paint. I used the etching tools to slightly scrape into the card. Mmmmmm.... Keep going......

Sunday now

Returned to the Facebook challengs and completed three small images, instants, of the woods. 

Continued to blue tack them up on a wall. Liked them like this. They remind me of black and white photos from a distance. I have worked with the graphite and acrylic over old watercolours which have some colour in and I liked that too.

Really hard to paint in graphite and acrylic on primed board. The primer was completely dry but still rubbed off and mixed into the graphite and acrylic. Ugh ! There are some colours that don't mix with white ie black and graphite.

You see, if I put white acrylic over the primer, the graphite won't be fixed arghhhhh ! Have a think.

This was the Daily painting today . Hard. He ho........get over yourself ....

Monday now..........

Two more Dailies finished ( too much drying time ) 

More obscure .......... Not sure ...........keep going ..............

Give myself a good talking to

So, not picked up a paint brush since yesterday's Art group ! That's a while for me. Had to walk to the Art group cos of the snow ( took me an hour ) and thought no-one else would come but there were 8 of us ! We were looking at the work of Rebecca Crowell using a dark under painting........like I had been doing at home.......


These were the latest two Dailies .......big reaction to the snow !

Well what will today bring ? Reluctant to go in the studio ..... too cold and dark ......will have to sort out the heating and lighting in there before next year ....... My Art lounge is inviting ......... But studio isn't at the moment.....

Have arranged for the Art group to hVe a shared lunch at mine next Wednesday . I want them to critique the Dailies on display to see if that spurs me on.

What can I do this morning to help the Daily painting cause ? ( I have an Art and a Craft group this afternoon but already done the prep work for it ) we are doing small textile pieces for cards or the front of note lets.

Tidy up

Go in the studio for starters

Prime some boards

Enjoy my morning , without angst ing

Remember I don' t have to make any big decisions with the Dailies

Review the graphite ones .... Sold a couple ....so someone at least likes them ...... they are still undeveloped......

Blocked !

So, put up a display of the six neutral , textured paintings and ugh , they looked awful together. Rethink but unfortunately then became completely blocked with the work. Oh dear ! So much about painting is done in your head ( or is that just me ? )

So, almost a week on, I have painted feeble paintings this week that need to be, ' tossed! ' ... Well tossed metaphorically. I mean painted over.

I have been avoiding the studio like the plague, procrastinating and finding many other things to do. Does it sound familiar ? Well actually, not usually for me...

So, how to counter a , ' block.' 

Tidy up in the studio. Good idea.... It has got overrun with paintings piled up and stacked randomly.

Take the display down , catalogue it and put it away....remember that I liked those paintings 

individually, I just didn't like them together.

Change your pallettes.

Return to graphite ( err think about that one )

Make a frame to try individual paintings in, to test their validity

Have a group crit to try and help me over the block

Prime some boards so that I am ready if I go on a roll

Often painting feels like perhaps surfing does, you are just trying to catch a wave ( roll ) Sometimes it just doesn't happen . You just have to keep trying ( she says )

I am in that studio today for all day .... All I have to do at the end of the day is have four Daily

paintings completed ! Four half hour paintings ..... That 's all !

Look out of my kitchen window .......georgeous......white......flat sky (full of snow ) ....big tone changes but nothing in between .....

Here was my first one , painted over a dark under painting. In comparison to the real thing above, mine is browner, above is bluer. I love the light when it's snowed ..... Have really found the dark January light hard to deal with generally. Long, long nights, sometime the day just doensn't get light enough all day.....

Anyway, when you are painting you are looking for a sense of, ' rightness.'When you get that, stop ! You might later then change your mind but that's your choice. The relationship between the artist and their painting is sometimes a fickle one. You like them one day but don't like them the next. He ho.

This one feels fussy.It took me much longer than the half hour allocated. Try again ! Stay in the studio !

Walk out of the back gate into the woods.Through the woods onto the hills. Georgeous day in paint and snow ! Enjoyed the paint , even if I paint over them tomorrow.

The final four today on the black studio wall.