Last week, something started to change. I looked at the calendar and some familiar feelings surfaced - I realized time is now once again flying by. Many months had gone by during this pandemic in such a way that I experienced a noticeable change in my perception of time. It slowed.
It is this dynamic that resulted in a love-hate relationship with our work from home orders that we are living through as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic. I am grateful for many things. Among them, I am grateful to have experienced the passage of time much like I remember experiencing it when I was much younger - rather slow and full of anticipation. I can't help but wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience in this regard...?
Another thing I am grateful for is my newfound art practice. It has allowed moments of growth, learning and peace. I've been able to help some charitable organizations and contribute to the effort of friends and family pay tribute to loved ones. All this born from the extra time on our hands which allowed me to go back to an old hobby. A hobby grew to a vocation and will someday be a career. So the return to a faster-paced passage of time created some concern about my ability to sustain the consistency necessary to progress and improve as I aim to do.
Then inspiration came from a familiar place. My cousin and fellow artist, Stephanie Berry. She recently did a fantastic art challenge where she created paintings of flowers in pen and ink and watercolors nearly each day for a period of time. Stephanie has young children and works full-time. Needless to say she's very busy. You can checkout her work on her Etsy page Click Here. It is really incredible! The challenge seemed to help Stephanie increase productivity and grow. So naturally, like all artists do... I decided to copy a really good idea.
I thought about it for a while and landed on the idea of a brief Year-End Creativity Challenge. Here is how it will go:
#mandalamonday = Every Monday I will post a new mandala
#TonalismTuesday = Every Tuesday I will post a new tonalism painting
#WaterWednesday = Every Wednesday a painting of water
#ThirtySomethingThursday = Every Thursday a painting created in less than 40 brush strokes
#FastDrawFriday = Every Friday a fast thumbnail drawing
#SundaySessions = Every Sunday a live or recorded video of a full painting
Here is a link to the original post regarding the challenge where you can view the work I post related to this challenge. Sometimes I will include videos. Sometimes it will be just a photo. The lake scene shown above is the result of the first #waterwednesday.
Here is a link to the first Mandala Monday video on my YouTube page.
Here is link to the first Tonalism Tuesday post
Here is a link to the first Thirty-Something Thursday post - see the thumbnail image below. This drill was introduced to me by Phil Starke. Phil has some incredible instructional content online. Phil among a handful of others really helped me overcome the initial roadblocks I ran into when I decided to start oil painting. This drill really helps to focus the mind on seeing a scene and simplifying it into its most basic shapes.
I've already fallen behind but left some margin on Saturday's to allow for extra time to catchup if needed.
Wish me luck... join me if you'd like.
Be well, Tom
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