I recall very clearly my first art instructor in college telling us to keep a daily sketchbook. What a burden! At the end of the semester, I rushed to get a dozen or so sketches down on paper to submit. Needless to say, that wasn't what she was looking for. Skip ahead to today and my "if only" is that I wish I had learned the lesson she tried to teach. Doing anything daily will improve skill, comfort, creativity and exploration.
If you string all of my painting years together, I've been painting for a handful of years. But in truth, it has been a few decades of sporadic painting. Not for a lack of want but for want of an income in the traditional, go to a "real job" sense. My subject matter and mediums have run the gamut. I've certainly grown as an artist and have been honored to be in juried shows and art associations. I have shown my work in galleries and won some awards. And yet for me, something has been missing from my work.
The daily painting movement has been around for years and now I've caught the bug. By painting a small painting every possible day, I intend to find that something that's been lacking. To continually grow and redefine myself as an artist. Instead of reigning in my painting style to fit what I think it should be so my work will be liked, wherever those ideas came from, to developing a loose and free-er style. To do this I am willing risk having days that elate me with daring successes and others that result in wiping my canvas clean only to try something else.
I intend to paint until I am no longer able. So along those lines, beginning today, I'll paint and post a new painting each day for as many days as is possible for me to paint (while still working a "real" job.) I'm going to enjoy this! I hope to inspire other like-minded souls to join the movement and have fun painting again.
