Initially the plan with 254 paintings was to paint one a day, every day, even if I only had 30 minutes to paint. Now the plan is I have the morning/afternoon/all day then I paint (evening is still currently out due to no light in studio and wanting a clear boundary between my physical art making space and home.). If painting in morning ( I am trying to clear my diary to keep mornings free as its my best time) then I get out there at latest by 8.45 and paint until 1pm (on painting days the rule is no checking internet til 1pm. Husband commented today, why dont you leave it a while to warm up out there? As I can get out there I cannot delay, not quite sure how I’ll cope through the winter, I am hoping I can get a light soon so I am able to shut the shed and warm int with fan heater ( have got but can’t use much as in the day if I shut the door its quite murky in there!
Routines, routines!
Now on day 11 and some days the painting seems to do something right away, others not at all. These paintings which are not successful I continue working on when I feel the current days work is as far as it can go or drying. In the first week I used oils a bit, but am not going to from now as space to dry these isn’t available.
Below are my self-set and evolving rules:
254 Paintings
• How it started
Having the notion of Bathe in ignorance on my mind, I responded to it by wanting to test my own ignorance in a specific way. Turning to the Oxford Shorter dictionary I decided I would see how many words I don’t know on a limited number of pages. Being interested in growth patterns and maths, I chose the Fibonacci sequence of numbers to dictate the pages I then photocopied (the largest dictionary I could find in my area is in Abergavenny library) pages 1, 2, 3, 5, ,8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597 and 2584. I then had 254 unknown words to work with, which I first responded by building a tent structure with some of the words pricked out with a pin, allowing the sunlight to stream through the holes and bathe myself with the light of the words I am ignorant of.
• Intention at beginning was to do a painting a day, with a word drawn from a hat as the starting point. I trialled this with Abjure and Lingonberry in July 2015.
Initially I wanted to simply respond to the word in paint – Lingonberry is written clearly on canvas and Abjure originally had its definition in pencil into the paint.
• My evolving & current routine:
STUDIO DAYS:
Be in shed by 845am at the latest.
Not allowed to be on the internet until 1pm.
1) Pick canvas (currently painting over old ones and trying to source old canvas sails – it just feels right). Am intending canvas’ to be ready stretched before I start.
2) Pick a word out of the bag.
3) Look up the meaning and write in concise form in journal.
4) If the word has an even number of letters then I divide the canvas up into a grid with number of squares /rectangles equal to the number of letters in that word.
If the word has an odd number of letters then I’ll divide the canvas into bands equalling that number.
5) Paint!
The grid structure has been appearing in my spontaneous painting recently and I have also deliberately used it as the starting point of paintings this year.
Lines / bands is something that appeals to me with its obvious link to text and writing.
NON-STUDIO DAYS
Kit: Sketchbook, 2B pencil, rubber, sharpener, reference pictures for back up (but mostly want to be drawing plants / growth from life).
Sustained drawing of growth. Growing foliage often appears in my work, I am not sure why and so I am going to pursue this by making studies and observation. I intend to print these through a method where I can use the photo to print from & in black and white i.e. screen print, gravure. Currently researching printing processes which could be suitable.
I will be adding some photos of my paintings here, on Instagram, my a-n blog, Facebook page and the real thing will be visible from my window in Abergavenny. I am really interested in the possibilities of the single painting gallery.
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I’m attaching images of some of the paintings – I have a list of things I need for this project and finding & funding a tripod is one of them, not to mention canvas and paint!
