There’s a wonderful podcast that I listen to called Beyond the Studio where two artists talk about a lot of the behind the scenes type of talk that goes on..beyond the studio. I like it because they talk about the reality of it, the actual day to day. I always very much appreciate real talk. Anyway, I follow both of them on Instagram, and Amanda Adams put up a January challenge using the hashtag of #drawstuffwithclosecall. I decided to join in. And I am currently a day behind, but it’s all good. I used to be so uptight about these challenges…but now I’m just like, I’ll get to it, who cares. But at the same time, I do try to do it and keep up because that is the point.
The point for me is to actually create everyday and possibly do things that I wouldn’t do, or things that I want to do but that I procrastinate on because of all the other things that need to get done. And also to allow myself a space to create things just to create, to practice, to process. Some of these I actually don’t necessarily want to share on my IG feed because they’re not the best! But at the same time, I will share anyway as it’s all part of my practice. When I was in college my dorm room freshman year was right next to the practice building for the School of Music. I would hear these amazingingly talented musicians and voice majors showing up at all hours to do their scales. Over and over and over again. Admittedly sometimes I wanted to yell-SHUT UP already!! But at the same time, it showed me that people who are dedicated to their art, show up and practice. Every. Day. Over. And. Over.
I actually really like how this gouache landscape study above turned out. I feel like I can say that because I had my serious doubts about it for the majority of the time while working on it. I did it at night, while watching a show on Hulu. I found that my split attention was actually really great for this painting because I just kind of kept going, for a long time. I could have stopped much earlier, but because I was watching this show, I just kept on and let go of any expectation….and then I actually started liking what was happening, especially in the foreground of where all the grasses were. When I look at it, it reminds me of the time I spent on the paper getting lost in painting the grass. And that’s what it’s all about. Getting lost in the process.
If you want to see my daily posts, head over to IG as I won’t be posting all of them here. I’ll probably just post a very few here. Also join in, if you want!