Easy Ease or Potato Chip Painting

I was chugging along with my project to paint a simple object from life and it was going well for awhile.  At some point, I found myself dangerously close to the point I was at when the pandemic began where I just did not have enough brain power left at the end of the day to paint.  I lost my habit for a long time when that happened and it was hard to get it back.  This is one of the last of the daily object paintings.  By the way, I like the right side of this one. 

I decided that I wanted to keep my daily habit going, but that I needed to back way off to find what I’m calling easy ease and  potato chip painting. It’s hard to eat just one potato chip.  Well,  it’s also hard to paint just one negative space tree.  I think I’m going to finish out the rest of the month with these.  We will see how I feel when March begins.  

I am using these as an excuse to just play and work on my paint strokes.  When I look at these, I really want to try and start making marks which are more distinct and less like a melted crayon effect.  The second one down is the one I did tonight and it’s trending more in that direction.  For some reason, I still want to fill every nook and cranny.  

 I have also been looking at different tree shapes and playing around with those, a bit, as well.  

The Best Process Change So Far

Currently, I have a sustainable project.  In February, I plan to paint one household object each day.   I started several days early.  Since my time is really limited, I’m doing a simple painting.  There’s no time limit for drawing, although I try to keep a pretty brisk pace for all of it.  When it comes to painting, I give myself 15 - 20 minutes.  I’m also not going for something I’d hang on the wall.  It’s almost like I’m journaling. 

All of this is good, but the single biggest change is that when I am done painting I clean up and walk away without looking at what I just did.  Occasionally, I’ll give take a quick glance.  

The next day is when I finally take a look and write a few comments about things to work on and, at least, one thing that I like or enjoyed about yesterday’s painting.  This is something which got drilled in by Roz. 

This is a game changer.  It gives me energy, rather than taking it away and I feel better about every painting, even the clunkers.  The time and space gives the editor a chance to emerge rather than the bully.  

This is really significant.  If I try and look right after I’m done, I have to get past a place of disappointment.  I’m finding that waiting to look the next day, I start from a place of potential.  When I look at a so-called clunker, the chatter in my head is more along the lines of “well, that went off the rails a bit, why was that, does that give you something to focus on today”.  It’s a much kinder and helpful conversation in my head.  

Here are two paintings of a light bulb.  This bulb did not work in the lamp it was in.  It had the slightest flicker which I could not stand.  I think it will be fine in a different lamp. 

I painted it two days in a row and I can see myself doing that for much of February. This is the second version.  I think two paintings of the same object is generally going to be enough.  In most cases if I try more, it unleashes the perfectionist, which is not good. 

Here is my first attempt.  I got quite off in the angle and direction between the drawing and the painting. 

I also wanted to share the third painting I did with the same pepper.  I did this one before the lightbulbs.  The goal was to try and capture the shape and lean of the pepper more accurately than in the second painting, so I did a similar set up.  In this case, I’m glad I used the same model for a third painting.