It's all Katherine Tyrrell's fault. She posted a very thought-provoking essay on her blog a few weeks back on the subject of plagiarism in art. Several Painting- a -Day Painters were under discussion. Looking at their work, I was impressed, once again, by how much progress these artists had made by hewing to that daily painting agenda that was so popular a few years ago.
I'm not interested in painting postcard-sized painting each day, but I AM interested in making progress! I came up with a scheme that has been sort of working, in which I paint a pre-selected (by me) subject each week, and I spend no more than three hours on each painting. The subjects are easy ones (seafood, still lifes, amaryllis, etc... just reasons to push paint around.) If you know how obsessive I'd become as a painter, you could guess that I wouldn't be able to finish a painting in three hours! Far from it! But, that was part of the plan. I'd just quit at the end of three hours. Then I'd start a new one the next day. No finishing means no finicking! The goal is to loosen up and just to play. These (unfinished) paintings are process, not product.
If I get enough of these under my belt, I figure I'll know where I'm going as a painter again. It's been way too long since I painted in a sustained and sustaining way. I'm a toddler in the studio again... and you know what, it's fun. Who knows where I'll end up?
Here and above are a few I've produced over the past weeks. They're acrylic on 11" x 14" gessobord. Remember, they are UNFINISHED!:
In addition to painting, I've been working in my garden! I will post more on this topic in a couple of weeks when the garden is in its first wave of seasonal glory. Here are two peeks:
*Part 2 of today's title refers to a post I made a few weeks ago about preferring process over product in my journal, on Kate Johnson's wonderful blog, a spinoff of her upcoming wonderful book.
In the spirit of that post, I give you today's journal page:
Well I am very confused because I have you as a feed on my blog so I can see when you update, only this time, it seems I have missed a your last few posts and it didn't tell me at all!!
Hmm... how odd!
Well, it gave me lots to read and look at today and wow, you really are on form! Your sketches are just beautiful!!
And these daily paintings remind me of Kim Rempels blog, she does the same thing in a very similar style. These are all wonderfully loose and unfussy! Brillant!
Posted by: Sandra | April 25, 2011 at 03:26 PM
What a wonderful discipline, married to play!
And thank you for the kind words, sweets...
Your garden is luscious, too...
Posted by: Cathy Johnson (Kate) | April 25, 2011 at 06:48 PM
I don't have such discipline, maybe I need to find some to improve too.
Posted by: Sue Pownall | April 26, 2011 at 12:14 PM
Funny, to find a discipline to loosen up, but it makes perfect sense. Your work always looks wonderfully loose and fluid, but I know enough to know that this must be deceptive. These pieces look glorious anyway, as does your garden!
Posted by: Lucy | April 27, 2011 at 12:51 PM
Oooooh--looking fabulous, Laura: the paintings and the garden. Really lovely!
Posted by: sue | May 01, 2011 at 08:54 PM