Thoughts on Six Weeks Completed

What a relief, six weeks of daily painting completed.  It is a great feeling to set a goal and then achieve it.  I am going to enjoy that feeling for a moment.  Ahhh.

Daily painting has been an amazingly positive experience.  It has been an exercise in discipline; it forced me to make making art a priority in my routine.  It developed my thinking as a painter; now I see things differently, like in brushstrokes or shades of light and dark.  Also, I learned how to paint without the freedom to make and leave a big mess,  to share the creative process with people who felt like picking up a paintbrush with me and to tackle subject matter which I had avoided out of fear of failure.

Now I can look forward to painting without the artificial constraints I placed on myself through this project but with all that I gained from my summer of daily painting.

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Tonight in oil

Last week in pastel

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Playing with faces - a new experience for me.

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Painting Helpers

Aaliyah working

Aaliyah and Matt's work

Matt working

My niece Aaliyah (age 8) and nephew Matthius (age 6) worked at the table with me this morning while I painted  today's piece.

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Thoughts after five weeks

Still amazed at my production, I am getting a little bored with my narrow parameters and looking forward to taking more time and approaching more complex subject matter and composition when I am done with this project.  For a change and after asking permission, I sketched some children at play on the beach in anticipation of painting a few.  That will test my feel for figure painting.    Daily painting is still an effective exercise, allowing me to try new things with a sense of playing with less emphasis on the outcome. Confession time:  I haven't totally let go of outcome - I have painted over a few rejects and thrown away a few too.

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Third attempt; still trying to capture the wetlands lining the bay.

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I have been playing with watercolors without much success-
until now.  This is my first watercolor post.  By the way, if you decide to paint a landmark, it better be accurate.  I hope I did "Ole Barney"  justice.

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Four Weeks Complete

I am amazed at my productivity.  Stacked up next to my dresser are 28 paintings.  That is quite a pile.  Working in acrylic has been interesting.  It dries so much faster, I had to get into it.  (There isn't much room here to have oils sitting around taking a week or more to dry.)  But the acrylic paint doesn't always do what I want it to do.  The ocean comes out much better when I am working in oil.  Speaking of ocean; I had been afraid of painting ocean. Last summer, I made many unsuccessful attempts.  This daily work has gotten me past this fear to some fairly satisfying results.  

Truly, some days it feel like a chore, but overall, the exersize of daily painting is advancing my work.

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                                 This is the second in a series of beach entrances along Long Beach Township, NJ.  I may do a few as there are may variations.

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