What are you doing in 2010?
2010 is the year for doing stuff. If you are not doing or making something, you are wasting your time.
My plans for 2010 are rather ambitious. To follow through on them, I am going to have to do ridiculous amounts of work.
I’m Ok with that.
One of these plans is to do 50 paintings this year. One a week.
How to get ‘er done
Self Portrait, Oil on Canvas, 12x12. First painting of 2010.
The structure I have set up for myself is pretty simple. I paint on Monday night and Tuesday night, starting around 7pm. I work till 10 or 11 pm. The painting is finished when I go to sleep Tuesday night, even if it isn’t complete.
The results of my first week’s work are sitting up here on my left. (I paint myself a lot because I am always a willing model)
This painting is not complete, but it is finished. This is as much as I got done on Monday and Tuesday night. I may work on it again a little bit this weekend when I have some free time, but then again, maybe not.
I imagine that this painting requires about 6 more hours of work to complete — it is about half done right now. The major shapes and areas are defined, but everything needs more work to flesh it out and make it complete.
Why half finish a painting?
When I was getting my art degree, I made a decision to pursue printmaking as my emphasis rather than painting. This had more to do with the school than my interests.
UC Santa Cruz had a marvelous printmaking facilites and equipment, and a marvelous lithography instructor. I had the oppurtunity to get a deep understanding of printmaking.
I also knew that if I studied painting, all that I would get was a lot of time to paint. This had to do with the school and the instructors. There was very little actual instruction beyond the introductory courses. Most of the advanced courses that I would have been in were little more than a lot of time to spend painting.
I put off painting, because I realized that I could get a lot of time to paint on my own, and learn nearly as much on my own as I would have in school.
I set this “painting a week” plan to get that year of painting that I put off in school. This is mostly about regaining my painting chops than producing finished work.
I’ll make paintings that you can buy for thousands of dollars next year.