#4

#4
oil on canvas
12 x 12 circle
5 hours

45 minutes
block-in
(my cat Bo-ski to the left)

5 minutes

This is the view from the roof above the kitchen, located at the back of the house, looking south. I have been wanting to paint this view for awhile. I hope to do more of these!

#3

#3
18 hours
oil on board
16x20

Ok, so I am already beginning to deviate from the one a day format. Oops! I started this painting thinking I would do it in one day and it ended up taking two and a half days. So I may need to rethink the title of this blog and/or project. Going forward I plan to attempt (notice I said 'attempt') to stick to the one a day format, but I can already see that is going to be a challenge. The good thing about this project is that I feel looser and everything is flowing more, which is why I wanted to do it in the first place. Something else I have noticed is that I often do better when I plan less, when I stumble upon a subject that inspires me and I can set up and begin working immediately, feeling energized because I feel inspired, rather than the opposite which is how I was feeling about my set ups before I started this one. If I don't feel inspired I tend to just sit there feeling bored. Note to self.

detail

1 1/2 hour block-in

This shows how I am adjusting my method due this project. I used to do a more fully developed block in, let that dry for a day and then paint additional layers on top. The benefit of that approach is that I can relate to the overall block in when I paint the smaller areas. Here, I am moving faster, so I find that step unnecessary. As long as I can establish my darkest dark, lightest light, some basic color relationships and basic proportions, then I can 'wing it'. After all, it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to work well.

This is the back room of the house. We are slowly fixing it up. We recently pulled up all the linoleum down to the sub floor. There is a cardboard type layer still stuck to the wood floor, which you can see here. I didn't need to arrange the set up, instead I created a composition from the room as I found it. The only item I 'arranged' is the yellow drill in the back left. I added that later because I just liked it in the picture and felt it contributed the color arrangement of my composition.

Ok. I felt I should include this because it was the original #3. I consider it a failed painting. This is about three hours work, then the light changed rather dramatically and I didn't really like the composition anyways. So I abandoned it and considered that day a wash.

# 2

# 2
16 x 18
oil on board
7 hours
Lesson Learned: Overcast lighting is the bomb.

1 and half hours -block in

start - 5 minutes

Picture of start with subject in background.
This is my tiny back backyard in the city, I planted roses earlier in the spring and this is my first time painting them. It is also my first time painting in this type of light which may now be my favorite lighting situation. I plan later to pop a few edges in the flower more and glaze the leaf directly behind it with some pthalo turquiose, but otherwise it is 99% done. This one was so much fun.

Painting a Day #1

Painting a Day #1
16 x 18
oil on masonite
6 hours

Lesson learned: Go, go, go! No time to get hung up in one area for too long. Also, lay down large areas of paint in the beginning, this will create a bed of paint to work into in order to get the paint flowing.

Red conte drawing - Ellen

Ellen
18 x 24
Conte on toned paper

First post - mission statement

This blog is set up to catalog the results of a new venture I am embarking on. One painting a day for 50 days. This is not a new idea, other painters have already famously pioneered this way of working. I would like to borrow the concept because it may be a way for me to loosen up and get my creative juices flowing, create a larger body of work, and to work and think in the moment which is where I believe I do much of my best work. I have a bit of a tendency to over think things when I have unlimited time and this can often (but not always) cause a painting to get stuck in the middle stages of trying to create "art". I think this venture will be a lot of fun as well as much work and commitment. The subjects of this series can be anything and everything. I will probably start out with still life arrangements and then begin expanding organically to other genres such as interiors, landscapes, cityscapes and then anything else that might catch my interest. I am hoping it will evolve into tackling subjects I have never painted before and could be ideas for more involved paintings later! The sizes of the paintings will vary also, 12 x 12 being about he smallest and as large as 24 x 24 and possibly even larger? In my mind, larger canvases simply means larger brushes and more paint. The goal of course is to complete each oil painting in one session also known as alla prima. It will also be interesting to see how the paintings evolve over time. The two examples I provide below do not count toward the 100, so as of now I am at zero. Also since my schedule varies throughout the week with teaching or other projects the 50 days will not be consecutive. If I were to do three a week it will take me approximately 4 months, then I will try to feel where it should go from there. Wish me luck...!

This is a one day still life painting from a few years back done at Studio Incamminati.
http://www.studioincamminati.org/

16 x 20

This is a landscape painting I completed yesterday in about 2 hours for the Plein Air for Camphill event.
http://www.camphillspecialschool.org/Parentplansdayofart.php

14 x12

More of my work can be seen at www.kerrydunn.com