Week 4 and Final Days of the 30 day on same canvas challenge

The start of the final days of the 30 days painting on the same canvas are so exciting.  To work with no direct purpose or goal is very freeing.  The make drastic changes is really out of this world.  I know that when I covered Day 24's painting with black Gesso many of my supporters cried Nooooooo!  To tell the truth, I loved that painting and did not want to cover it up, but, the purpose of this exercise as I have said many times was to embrace change and not become married to any one thing. I found that all of the bumps and texture of previous layers pushed through making this a most juicy canvas.

Day 25
Start of the final week with Black Gesso

Day 26
Adding color to the canvas by means of a grid

Day 27
Marks and secret language

Day 28
Adding stencil marks and color

Day 29
Added a little more color and marks

Day 30
Finished painting Varnished and signed

Well, the project is done.....how do I feel?  A little sad because I loved the process and yet very happy and proud because I accomplished it and have a hangable painting. Am looking at as I write this post because it represents a breakthrough for me.  I actually completed an abstract painting.  This is not part of a class, a prompt or anything else.  I have pictures of paintings that I can go back and use as inspiration for future paintings and that is so exciting to me.

What did I learn from these 30 days?

1. I love painting without a plan
2. I can make changes freely
3. life is about changes
4. life is about trial and error
5. always sign you work, commit to it, it is you
6. just have fun

I think this will be an annual process, so I will mark my calendar for Oct. 16, 2016, tuck a way a canvas (much bigger than this year's), and just have fun,

Thanks for following me on this journey.  Thank you to Judy Wise for inspiring this wonderful process.

Until next time, be happy.....pilgrim

Week 3 of 30 days of painting the same canvas

The third week is here and it is hard to believe.  I have actually been painting on the same canvas since Oct. 14th.  The 30 days will actually end on Oct. 13th my brother's 65th birthday.  He died of congestive heart failure 10 years ago and I think of hime often.  So it seems so perfect to honor his day in this manner.

As I work through week three I have had some profound thoughts, at least for me anyway.  I often observe the techniques of other painters, the softness of colors; the ability to make portraits so lifelike and want to be like them.  It can really be frustrating to try and achieve the effect of another.  It occurred to me that what I need to do is perfect my own style, embrace my palette and enjoy my process.  That takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders.  

I am learning a lot during this 30 day process, not just about painting but about myself.

Day 15
Gesso and Dylusions spray inks

Day 16
Golden Acrylics, Stencilgirl club stencil, black and blue stabilo pencils

Day 17
Golden Acrylics, white and turquoise craft acrylic and black acrylic paint in fine liner

Day 18
Acrylic, gold acrylic

Day 21 More subtle changes

Day 20
Flowers changed, book page added, rubber stamp dragon fly,  acrylic glaze

Day 22
Patti Tolley Parish Stencil added to top, love this stencil

23 and 24
White grease pen added for depth, Hurricane stencil from  Art Anthology

The end of week 3, the number of days is a bit off due to technical error but hey, it is all about being human.  Anyhoo, I thoroughly enjoyed the work this week and know it will be hard to cover it up, but cover it up I must as I continue this quest.

Observations for this week:

• trial and error can be really fun.
• There are times when I need to just play and see where it goes
• I am finally getting really comfortable with not having a solid plan
• a canvas can hold up to a lot of abuse and changes
• this has affected my view on life

Week 4 is the last week for this current challenge,

Week 2 of 30 day Painting on the Same Canvas

My thoughts for this week:

Entering the second week of the challenge with a complete paint over.  I love Black gesso and it occurred to me that I could paint over everything from week 1 with Black gesso and then see what happened during the following seven days.  This could be brilliant or a disaster, but it is only paint and can be covered over.  I am trying to embrace abstract painting and it is a challenge.  I was thinking about it this morning and abstract painting reminds me of algebra (which gave me loads of problems).  I am an accounting type of person, so my natural inclination is to paint something concrete; flowers, trees, birds, etc.

Day 8
Black Gesso, Golden Interference Paint, Gold Paint and Golden Fluid Acrylic for drips

Day 9
Acrylic paint, Patti Tolley-Parrish Pod Stencil, Stencil 101 border stencil

Day 10
Added Alcohol Ink splatters to the painting, knocked back with light wash of white
Gesso.

Day 11
Gesso, Acrylic Paints, fine liners

Day 12
Addition of color blocks using Silks Acrylic Glazes

Day 13
Mark Making with black stabilo pencil and black grease pencil,
Stencil girl club flourish stencli

Day 14
More mark making and subtle changes with white gesso

Observations for the week:  This week started out with painting black gesso over the entire canvas.  The colors of last week disappeared but the delicious texture remained.  While the black was start, the introduction of color during the remaining days brought out stunning changes (if I say so myself).

I place the canvas where I can live with it all day, I find that I really enjoy looking at the changes each day, but I am not married to it meaning that I am eager to make changes an see what will happen.

I am still a little tentative in my approach.  I hope that by then end of this challenge I will be less tentative and more go for the gusto.

Week 1 of 30 days of Painting on the Same Canvas

I cannot take credit for this concept.  A wonderful Artist, Judy Wise, introduced this process I believe it was in August of this year (2015).  She worked on a large canvas for 30 days painting on it.  Some days changing the entire canvas and some days just making changes to various portions of it.

I loved the idea and decided to try it.  My plan is to paint on the same canvas for 30 days from October 14th to Nov. 14th which is my birthday.  I am posting a picture everyday on Facebook.  However, I will be posting a blog post weekly.  I have not decided if it will be a different post or an update to the same post showing the next week's work.  I will have to give that some thought.

Day 1 Oct. 14
Gesso, collage and acrylic paint applied with room key.  Love the effect

Day 2 Oct. 15
Acrylic paint applied by hand, no brushes were used.
Fluid Acrylic was applied in a line and sprayed with water to get drips
I love drips  

Day Oct 16
Covered with layer of Clear Gesso to keep colors true
Used neocolor II water soluble crayons to get deeper colors
Orange acrylic paint with stencil
Seth Apter stencil for work timeless
Sprayed watercolor to get drips and used circle stencil to wipea away color on the blue

Thinking about the artwork that I am doing.  It is not related to a class or the example of someone else, it is all me and that to me is amazing.  It is really intuitive because I do not know what I am going to do when I sit down to work on the canvas.

Day 4
Gesso and Acrylic Paint
Kept small portions from Day 3

Day 5
Acrylic paint, charcoal and SprayInk

Thoughts about day 5:  I have the canvass where I can see it all day.  I was looking at it and it occurred to me that I should turn it sideways and get another perspective.  Had thought about using circles today and I wanted give them depth.  Tried my hand at the charcoal and smoothed it with my finger, it gave the coolest shadow.  I have to remind myself that this canvas will change in someway tomorrow so do not get too attached.

Day 6
Acrylic, Pebeo Dyna Flow Acrylic, molding paste and stancil girl stencils

Still working on the side but I wanted to add some texture with Molding paste.  I wanted the circles to stay for a while so I added the texture inside of them.  I liked the effect.

Day 7

Background paint Acrylic, destress stain painted on the molding past images and sprayed with water
circles used as  border distress stain

Week 1 has come to an end.  Some observations:

1. I really like this process
2. I am painting with out a class, the format, color scheme, everything is all mine and I am so happy with that.
3. cannot wait to see what happens in week 2 although I think, I will spend this second week building on the base of day 8.