10 Minutes For A Painting

I have been painting more and blogging less.

Last Saturday in class, it was the 10-minute painting exercise and I felt really good in class.  All the sludge going on in the world receded and I felt very present and open.  

It’s a nice group of women and a big part of what I enjoy is seeing what other people are doing.  We are using the same materials and working on the same assignments for the most part.  The biggest variation between people seems to be paint brushes.  

It’s fascinating what people do.  One person uses a tiny brush and just sets things up and goes to work.  One person for last week’s homework took a deep dive into shiny things and the colors she found in the shine was amazing.  

I always feel so inspired.  

It can be hard to put your own work up for others to see.  After that initial reluctance, it’s okay.  Enough time has passed that everything looks a little better for a fresh eye than I might have recalled.  

In class last week, we did the 10 minute painting exercise.  In one of my spiral notebooks, I already had an 8” x 8” ready to go where the ground was pink and I had brought a green apple. 

While I can’t quite replicate this exercise as well at home, the forced pressure and limitation of doing a 10 minute 2” x 2” painting 4 different times is actually freeing.  There is no “do not”.   There is only do and even if the piece ends up with significant issues, there is something magical about the process and result as well.  You are in the moment.  Some decisions work out.  Some don’t.  While there is pressure, the stakes are very low and it’s a good way to get into “the zone”. 

I like painting on black, but, occasionally, it’s also fun to try a different ground.  When I do this and my first stroke goes down, my visceral reaction is slight panic.  OMG.  What have I done?  This color is not behaving the way it should.  The passes quickly and it’s time to get to work.

Here’s what I did in class.  

Since class last Saturday, I have done 2 more sets of 10 minute paintings, although I did cheat and go longer on several ones.  Also, time constraints meant that I would do 2 of them and go back and do the other two later.  You lose a bit by not doing 4 of them. 

Pears could become my favorite fruit to paint.  

Someone in class last week had some lovely deep red apple paintings.  I find it difficult to paint deep red apples and decided to give it a go.  I think I still need to add some more white and have been practicing this in some other paintings.  

For the rest of these, I’ve been trying to do 37 paint strokes or less, although I always seem to lose count, or trying to limit the time spent painting. 

This one was painted on a green background. I’ve been playing around with using a flat brush rather than a bright.  I can get juicier paint strokes with the flat, but my edges get sloppy and I’ve been losing the outer shape of what I’ve been painting quite a bit.  That happened with this one.  I also find that I tend to lose shape more often or worse on the left side of things and I have no idea why. 

For some reason, this one really annoyed me until I noticed the top.  Here’s a crop of just that. 

This pear seems boring to me.  

I took an in process photo of this pear painting.  

This was a 15 minute painting and I got too fussy and lost my original paint strokes.  

There is so much to learn and so many experiments to try and I am really thrilled to be back and painting more regularly.  

Missed Class. Been Sick.

 The second painting class was last Saturday and I woke up with a 101 degree fever, so no painting class for me!  When Kat sent out the class recap, it sounds like they did the one stroke per color, but in addition in her recap email she mentioned 37 brush strokes method.  On a whim, I did a google search and the best thing I found was this from the Painters Keys.  I also saved this with a bookmark.  When class is done, I am going to do this for 1 month and I am going to reread this letter.  It really spoke to me and it got me started.  The first few strokes were much more dynamic.  The finish was not, but I caught a glimpse and have something to strive for. That was the mug in the group below.

Here are some of things I’ve been painting.  I’ve been trying to paint every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes. 

Orange Baseballs

I am painting again.  Last week, I saw that Kat Corrigan was starting up a session of painting classes and I signed up.  The first class was Saturday and it seems like a nice group, as always. 

I started painting a bit on my own prior to that and I am so, so, so out of practice.  It’s sad to be so out of practice and struggling with my paint brush, shapes, values, mixing colors and all of it.  At the same time, I feel comfortable with practice that it will come back.  However where I am at right now is that I have painted a series of orange baseballs.  

Here is the latest one.  It’s not where I want, but I can also see improvement.  

I am shooting for painting everyday, but not sweating it if I miss some days here and there.  Kat suggested that we try to shoot for 4 pieces to bring each week and that seems like a good pace. 

Since I have been sick and haven’t been going to the gym in the morning, I’ve been going down to paint in the morning.  This morning, I had a wonderful experience.  I got to the flow state.  In the past, I’ve written out this as that glorious place where I get to the other side of my brain and I really do think that’s what happens. 

This morning, I was working along and I just got into a groove.  I felt like I could see better, that I could mix better (although I switched to using a pear) and all of it.  It’s like a veil lifts and I am fully present. 

It’s the best feeling ever.  It clears my brain and leaves me feeling refreshed.  I don’t try to force this, but sometimes I wonder if I paint more for this experience rather than the end result.