Week 3 came and went! I felt this was a fun week with lots of “gardens” inspiring me - spring has finally sprung here in St. Louis, so lots of green, foliage, flowers etc. I’m sure that influenced this work this week.
Day 12 - 100 Day Project 2019 © Kathryn Neale Studio. All Rights Reserved.
Day 13 - 100 Day Project 2019 © Kathryn Neale Studio. All Rights Reserved.
This day (13 above) had to be “worked on” as I kept making decision after decision that was just “OK.” Finally, after adding the dark indigo wash in the background, I turned the entire piece upside down, and it popped! FINALLY. I wrote a post about this in my Instagram feed but, HUGE TIP to all artists: Remember to rotate, rotate, rotate your artworks around and around. Obviously this works for abstraction, but then things start to “charge” and there’s a new energy about them when rotating at the very end. Most often I am completely finished with the painting but I rotate just in case. Often, I find the rotation “finishes” that piece & I love it even more. This was one of those examples where it did come together literally last minute. Otherwise, it was getting busier and busier LOL!
Day 14 - 100 Day Project 2019 © Kathryn Neale Studio. All Rights Reserved.
Day 15 - 100 Day Project 2019 © Kathryn Neale Studio. All Rights Reserved.
Day 16 - 100 Day Project 2019 © Kathryn Neale Studio. All Rights Reserved.
Still working a lot with gold paint and gold circles as a motif, experimenting and deciding what’s working and not. There are some of my favorites this week, like the pink one (Day 16 flowed and came together with the mandala in the background). I hope to do more sacred geometry exploring but I have to get ahead with working out the geometry designs because they take time.
Day 17 - 100 Day Project 2019 © Kathryn Neale Studio. All Rights Reserved.
This last day above, (17), was another example of getting too busy! But that’s one of my favorite challenging to work on is taking a preprinted piece of paper or wallpaper, or even fabric (like tablecloths) and start to “black areas out” so the pattern breaks up etc. It’s definitely a designers challenge, what to keep, what to delete basically so that it all can still come together without being overworked. This Day 17 was hair’s breath away from being “overworked.” Luckily I stopped and finalized few decisions before it got too far! :D
With all that being said, it’s important reminder every time to sit down to paint that nothing is set in stone. Every single decision can be changed. Even when you think things are inevitably going down the wrong track. You can never make a mistake. Mistakes can become precious commodities in paintings and to work through, work around or even delete if you want. But that mentality is key to keeping yourself moving forward.
And isn’t that similar to philosophy of life itself?! :D