Happy New Year. I think. Is it 2021? Or is it December 38, 2020? Hard to say. I decided to start the new year off with a painting challenge and I almost talked myself out of it, from a place of fear. In mid-December I was sure I couldn't do it, that I would only produce ugly and terrible paintings. After a good art/pep-talk with a friend I figured out what I wanted to work on, and I dove in!
My original idea was to paint 30 abstracts. I have never painted an abstract painting that I didn't hate. So this seemed really daunting. I tried practicing in December and I hated them. A lot. I painted over them. I kept circling back to what interests me most about art - how little information your eye needs to create a landscape, or a seascape, or a figure, flowers, a familiar object. Just a single horizontal line is the horizon, a smear of color becomes flowers. So I decided to do 30 paintings in 30 days, without too many rules.
They're all based on the real world (I can't seem to break free from the real world, maybe that will happen for me in 2022) but they're all exercises in abstraction. When I'm painting them I'm not painting anything except light areas and dark areas, bright colors and neutral colors. I'm leaving so much to the imagination.
And guess what?! I love them. I find them so interesting to look at! They have depth and movement and layers. I've already sold two of them, so I'm taking that as a sign that they're hitting the mark and I should keep going. 7 days down, 23 to go!