One Artist's Journey

Abstract #18 Big - 20" x 16" - Acrylic, watercolor pencil, permanent marker and gesso on Masonite - $200

I don’t know either. But I don’t have time so I have to count everything I do.

This one is weird. I painted it then went over it with a Sharpie pen. I have always wanted to do that, so why not do it one one that stinks anyway. If you like it, you can have it cheap! I don’t want to turn away anyone that might like this painting, but personally, I really don’t like it.

Notre Dame - 14" x 11" - Acrylic, watercolor pencil and gesso on Masonite - $300

This one ended up a little dark. I don’t know what is going on. I guess it has been a little while since I have painted and it is taking a little time to get up and running again. It is weird that I can do an abstract like the last one and then end up stuck again.

Abstract #17 - 14" x 11" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $300

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 3
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 72

I got in the studio today and cranked out three paintings. I came up with a new favorite abstract painting. I really like this one. I attacked it with watercolor pencil after the acrylic dried and came up with something I really like.

I haven’t painted for ages, it seems. I think what happened is I painted something I didn’t like and got stuck. I couldn’t figure out how to fix it, but it was very boring, even though I really liked the photo it came from.

then Christmas preparations came and I have been soooo busy.

I finally got a big sheet of Masonite and today I got around to cutting the panes. I cut 27 11 x 14 panesl from one 4′ x 8′ sheet. I am very happy with that because I have 30 paintings left to do and 10 days to do them in. I am really going to have to hustle to get them done.

I am going to sprint to the end and I really hope I make it. I never take a challenge lightly and I mean to finish this one!

I am so sorry! It has been over a week since I wrote. I don’t know why I can’t stay on track. Maybe I am just human.

Now I need to do like 30 paintings in the next 3 weeks. Weeks leading up to Christmas. Yea, right. Like I am going to have time to do this.

But I have to. I wrote a press release and sent it to a friend at the Sun newspaper. He said they would look into doing a story of me. Cool. Don’t know when it will happen, but isn’t that what every artist wants? Coverage?

Now, however, I must get the 100 paintings done or die trying. How would that look? “Here is an artist challenging himself to paint 100 paintings in 100 days. That is interesting, so we are doing a story on him. Oh wait. He wimped out and didn’t paint 100 paintings after all.” Nope. That can’t happen.

I have about a dozen panels left. I have some canvas and can do works on paper too. Over the next few weeks I am going to need to get pretty creative. This has been a great experience for me. It has pushed me harder than I expected, but it has been fun and enlightening.

I really hope to make some exciting stuff over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

This is very cool. A friend turned me on to Animoto, a video creation and sharing service. It is very cool! this is the first thing I did. You can do a 30-second video for free on their site. You need to pay to be able to do longer videos. Anyway, I used my paintings in the video. They turned out great. Check it out.

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 1
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 69

Venice #2 - 20" x 16" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $500

I finished one painting of Venice today. My brother and his wife went to Europe and took a bunch of pictures. I hijacked them – the pictures, not my brother and his wife – and plan to paint a bunch of them.

Tuscan Fields #3 - 14" x 11" - Acrylic and watercolor pencil on Masonite - $300

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 3
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 68

This painting is my favorite of the three landscape paintings I did today. It has a very simple composition. It has large areas of color that are fun to paint. The foreground red and yellow areas aren’t too big or too small.

This is the first one I painted today, and I got a lot of painting energy out in this one. I didn’t have to think about anything and was just able to paint.

Lavender Fields - 14" x 11" - Acrylic and watercolor pencil on Masonite - $300

This one turned out well. I love the lavender fields in France. (Not that I have ever been there).

I don’t usually use this color, but I might have to get a tube of it. I don’t like to spend a lot of time mixing colors. I prefer using the color straight out of the tube.

Tuscan Fields #3 - 14" x 11" - Acrylic and watercolor pencil on Masonite - $300

Today I finally got around to painting. Thanksgiving week has been BUSY!! Tuesday, I was at the dentists all afternoon.

I lead the young men’s youth group at our church. They are working to earn money for summer camp and other camping exploits. One gentleman in our congregation offered to pay a large amount of money if the young men would come and shovel mulch and spread it around his property.

I went with 7 young men and we worked for about 5 hours. It has been along time since I have done physical labor that hard and that long.  That was on Wednesday (School was out for the young men) and I was totally out of commission on Thursday. Friday I was still sore. And today, Saturday, I decided to paint. I worked on 3 Tuscan Landscapes on 3 small panels (14 x 11).

They turned out well and I like them a lot.