Happy 1st Birthday ‘Dordogne Painting Days’

Happy 1st Birthday ‘Dordogne Painting Days’

Joyeuse Anniversaire ‘Dordogne Painting Days’

Right, let’s all have a jolly good sing-song & celebrate! Sing wildly out of tune 1 use lots of BoLd uppErcase TYPOS & exclamtion marKS…….

now the next song is one I learnt with my children: ‘Now I’m one, I’m having so much fun! fun! fun!’

Has it been fun?
Was this blog a giggle?

OK, let’s get to being serious. THE ASSESSMENT for the first year.

Lesson one : is it fun (for me or for you?) ?
Lesson two ; is it financially worthwhile (for all my time & my effort involved in blogging)?

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The writing part
Lesson one: is it fun?

Well yes, these computers are compulsive & blogging has become a habit. I’ve always periodically journaled throughout my life, but never diaried. For me, journaling is writing from the heart when in need. Needless to say, these are private. I’m not one to spill my intimate thoughts out on the web. It still makes me somewhat uneasy, the fact that the internet is so annoymous.

There is something frightening about blogging in public. In an exhibition, you can weed out the weaker paintings. In a blog, it’s ‘the good, the bad & the ugly’. And that’s the way it should be. Process, not product. The creative process should allow for exprimentation, and yes, that means failing sometimes. No learning possible without failing from time to time. It is simple not possible to be 100 percent productive 100 percent of the time, making 100 perecnt perfect paintings 100 perecnt of the time. ‘ A Painting a Day’ IMO should not aspire to that. Some days are better than others…. Artists, not machines.

Lesson two : is it financially worth while (for all the time & effort involved in blogging)?

This is painting blog, & not a writing blog. So don’t get please don’t get offended by the confusion & loose-endness in this rambling, stream-of-consciousness prose. NO, I AM NOT USING BULLETIN-POINTS, CAN’T SPELL CHECK NOR NEITHER USE SUCCINCT ONE-LINERS. I can’t or else I would. Honestly. Actually, the truth is I just don’t have the time to brush up a polished bit of writing… IMO, it is not worth my financial while spending days writing in a blog.

Can I justify the time spent in writing here? What financial return to date? Not alot. Not worth my time.

I’m tinkering with the idea of becoming a ‘no-writing blog’ so as to free up more time to paint. But that does seem a shame as I do like to give a little commentary about the places I paint in. Paintings sometimes need a little ‘framing’ so as to put them in context. And the one thing that the dear ol’ internet does, is rip images out of context. I like chatting about the Dordogne and surrounding area. That pleases me. Trying to find a theory of painting doesn’t. Painting is an activity & not a theory. That’s one of my ‘bonne mots’ & Robert Genn has me spouting it in his quotations. And being an activity, it means it something you do. When you do it, how it unfolds… yes, maybe I should paint more with my brain & less with my brushes. Maybe yes indeed. ONly I would like my brushes to stay close to how I am in this world…. & not how I should be. Maybe I should be more…? But in this cycle of life, where I am, I am. I won’t want my brushes to be elsewhere. I want to do what I like. I digress.

Also writing does help me unfuddle my fuddled thinking. But I kinda like my fuddled thinking, kinda doesn’t bother me anymore that I don’t know all the answers nor can remember everything pertinent. etc. I digress.

I would however like my written words to be …. unoffensive. Or at least, unflamming. That’s the pits. I digress.

What was I talking about?

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the blogger part
Lesson one: is it fun?

Do I like blogger? Mine host? Our Google OVER lords of the entire universe. I remember the www days of DOS FTP before Goggle. Google has done wonders (but I do wonder if the black screens with green writing will ever catch Pacman & eat their own words?)

I like meeting people in the blogsphere. That’s the fun part. You can comment, you can read regularly & follow the progress over time. You can even meet & become friends, swop ideas & help. Even get help?

I LOVE TAGS/LABELS/CATEGORIES. Giving categories to paintings is the way to go on the intenet. Flickr is fab for this too.

I like the calendar format. A natural structure. Feels right to me. It’s what blogs do best. Interesting too to be able to review the year as well. Tempus fugit. Time has cycles,life has cycles, creativity has cycles.

Blogger helps me from digressing too much. The formal with the labels, categories gives me the structure I need whilst remains just about polymorphic enough for me to fit in my ‘penchant’ for polysemic digression (ie research).

Running a painting blog has forced me to be instantaneous with my photographing & cataloguing my artwork. Which is a good habit. Very constructive. Very Positive.

Thinking of ditching the green/turquiose colour scheme. What do you think?

Lesson two : is it financially worth while (for all the time & effort involved in blogging)?

Blogspot is free & that is pretty amazing really. I remember when yahoo groups tried to become fee paying.

I only have the ‘world wide wait’ here in rural St.Dizier. Dial up, not broad band.

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the ‘painting a day’ part
Lesson one: is it fun?

In 2003, I looked at the ‘painting a day’ formula & wondered if it was for me. Decided it wasn’t (rolled over & went back to bed 😉
In 2007, I decided ‘a painting a week’ might be a workable best-fit for me. I’m not going to excuse myself here nor justify absences. Certainly not in a blog. In 2007, I was less busy than I was in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006. I’ve got my work-load like everyone. I need to earn money. I have two children. I do other things than paint. Etc.

Was the ‘painting a day’ bit fun? I did ask the question about ‘a painting a day’ being FAST, whilst some paintings are SLOW. ie is ‘a painting a day’ alla prima, one session, first take? I don’t want to get into teaching here nor do I want to tell other artists what to do. Everyone has to find what fits. BONNE CHANCE TOUTE LE MONDE!!
For me, sometimes alla prima is fabulous. Other times, it just isn’t what my creative practice is demanding. i am aware that you can start a painting on one day & finish it on another. Work in progress WIPs are fun to look at (though maybe my time would be better off painting than blogging WIPs?).

I also need a time of ‘fermentation’,,,,,, & sometimes doing nothing, skiving off & cloud watching is what is needed. I won’t like a blog to get in the way of that. I am a day dreamer. Once a week allows for some time in the hammock, far away from crappy computer screens.

In an exhibition, you can weed out the weaker paintings. In a blog, it’s ‘the good, the bad & the ugly’. And that’s the way it should be. Process, not product. The creative process should allow for exprimentation, and yes, that means failing sometimes. No learning possible without failing from time to time. It is simply not possible to be 100 percent productive 100 percent of the time, making 100 perecnt perfect paintings 100 perecnt of the time. ‘ A Painting a Day’ IMO should not aspire to that. Some days are better than others…. Artists, not machines.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

the painting part
Lesson one: is it fun?

yes, of course!
I enjoy the discipline of blogging a painting a week.

My love for plein-air fits in well with alla prima small scale works. So I set my sights on 30 x 40 cm (16 x 12 inches approx) small sized work on wood panel. Not card. Oil primed, not gessoed. Good quality stuff. I love painting on oil primed board, just so nice & the colours stay good over the years, judging by my early student work of some (ahh ehhemmm) twenty years ago. I am making an effort on the price. 150 euros ex. P & P. (or their equivalent in GB sterling or US dollars via Paypal). It’s product line I still want to develop. Small sized affordable art. There is a jump in prices when the size goes above 30 x 40 cm (16 x 12 inches approx), so a price per square centimetre does not follow.

MY OIL PAINTING SIZES:
Small ( up to 30 x 40 cm; 16 x 12 inches approx)

Medium (up to 12 Figure French Format- 50 x 61 cm; approx 24 x 20 inches)

Large.

(ah me, bring back the days of gigantic. I think I might go & paint a wall for the fun of it. Inigo, Duncan, are you reading?).

How low can you go?
I AM NOT A MINATURIST. For me, under 15 cm largest dimension does n’t work in oils. I CAN4T DO MINATURES.

ARGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Not for me. NO NO NO Don’t go there!!! Doesn’t fit. Didn’t enjoy trying, which is sure sign that the minature path was not the path for me. It’s just not something in my sights for myself. Bravo those artists that do, a minature can be fabulous, on the right wall space; it’s just I can’t make minatures in oils, nor do I want to.

Sketches, drawings, or watercolours. Maybe, maybe. Good to have diversity.

Actually, seeing as I’m idly chatting away here today on my blog’s birthday, the downward drive in size in 2007 was the opposite of what had been an expanding universe. It had been an upward drive in size before the blog. here’s a story from my past: I was poor, I drove a mobylette (or cajouled my patient & loving wife to pick me up in her car) with the painting gear strapped on the back. This obiviously put a limit on size. Too big & the moby had a wind sail….’trés deconseillée’. So imagine what happend to my painting pratise when we became a two car family! Big was in. There was also the fact that I was doing a lot of big shows here in the south west. The hot seat – the holiday period the two weeks of august in the tourist sites in the main venues, which are beautiful but BIG spaces. Up to eighty paintings…. big shows. Big paintings. Big crowds. (Big drain of my energy.)

And now it gone small again…. LOL

Adapting the ‘painting a day’ formula to fit, making an effort on the price of small size oils, but still making a diversity of medium & larger oils on canvas, whilst still allowing sketchbooks, drawings & WATERCOLOURS to go. BE WET. STAY WET.

Lesson two : is it financially worth while (for all the time & effort involved in blogging)?

Here’s the end of the blog year totals :

OILS

36
small oils (up to 30 x 40 cm;16 x 12 inches approx)

20
medium sized oil (up to 12 Figure French Format- 50 x 61 cm; approx 24 x 20 inches)

7
large oils

42 WATERCOLOURS (mostly quarter sheet)

32 DRAWINGS

TOTAL = 137 works ( 365 days divided by 137 = 2,67 which is about a painting every three days …was it a leap year? did I miss something? But given that some of these entries were dragged up from pre 2007, take away some 11 entries on the ‘early work’ category & maybe a few for cheating but add some on when I published three or four painting in one posting….which is over a painting/drawing a week, more if you calculate per centimetre square…then it’s 365 paintings a day).

CONCLUSION concerning the ‘painting a week’ project = It certainly has pushed up the numbers of paintings per year that I produce, albeit that more of them are smaller & ‘quicker’. As a rule of thumb that I was told by a major gallerist in London, twenty to thirty good quality, medium to large paintings & drawings is what is expected from a professional artist in good health/inspiration ie one London/Paris/New York exhibition per year. But everything demands on what you want to paint/draw & where you want to go with your creativity.

It was fun, ‘je ne regrette rien’ (as he croaks away on turpentine) …..

QUESTION = were any of them any good?

QUESTION = did I learn anything? YEs, loads. Bucket loads. Good project.
“blogging art = imporoved art” to quote KATHERINE TYRELL from her excellent blog …
http://makingamark.blogspot.com

I also enjoyed doing some ‘research’ paintings/drawings like the portraits of my family, paintings done with absolutely no financial aim in mind.

TOTAL BLOG ENTRIES FOR YEAR ONE = 174 (174 entries minus 137 new works …which means I’ve been gassing away & not painting).

TOTAL SALES DIRECT FROM BLOG = not worth my time & my effort.

however, on the business-side, the blog has generated an offer of an exhibition in an important city in America, upon which I’m deliberating/procastinating/querying. Without the blog, that wouldn’t have happened 🙂

But hey, I’m bringing a new project into the ‘white area’ of full realisation. it’s still in the ‘grey area’. Still needs developing. I had no idea a year ago, except that I’d like to give a try. It really was in the ‘black area’. So I gave myself a year to see. The results – was it fun? Yes it was fun, ‘rigolo’ but no, not worth my while… this year. Maybe next year? etc…….hmmmm? BOF – je vais peint.

Bye for now
thanks for your readership

aux pinceaux (hands on your brushes)

adam