Welcome, lovely humans, to The Painted Presence Project, where I plan to paint in silence for ten minutes a day for thirty days, all on the same 11 x 15 inch piece of watercolour paper. While this studio diary will only include images, there are full length videos available on Patreon!
DAY FIVE
Today’s session was just about playing. My mind was hard to settle since there’s A LOT on it. Mamdani. Prop 50. The blue wave that seems to be happening ahead of the primaries. The Conservative MP who crossed the aisle to join the Liberals ahead of the budget vote here in Canada. Appointments. I’m just home from one now as I type. Smoking cessation support because I’m ready and it’s time and hearing “you’re going to be on oxygen at some point in you life, but whether that’s in a matter of months or years depends on whether or not you quit smoking” lit a fire under my ass. Self-love DEMANDS that I do this. Hope gives me the will. Modern medicine (hello, Zyban, hello nicotine mints) will give me the way.
All this to say “It’s really fucking LOUD in here, y’all!”. Yikes.
But…I did have a pretty immediate impulse to glaze over the silver ink, so that got me started. I rarely work with Pthalo Blue straight out of the bottle but I really liked how this looked over the silver and gold. I pulled out the Nikel Azo Gold on a lark, just to see how it would look as a glaze.
There were no real revelations today. Just me catching myself on the hamster wheel that is THINKING TOO MUCH, and then the gentle nudge to tone that down a bit and have a bit of fun.
The violet acrylic ink and DRIPPAGE which I added later on in the process looked like it might be trying to tell me something, but I wasn’t into it. There’s enough going on, thank you so much, violet drips. Let’s push you all the way back. Wiping it back gave me the cool rain on the window effect I ended up with!
Some days mean something. Some days don’t. Some days, the practice is going to feel medicinal or soothing. Some days, it’s going to feel like just another thing I have to do that day. I’m content with that, and I know, from previous experience, that having a practice offers benefits I might not even be aware of until much later.
How are things going for you? Are you enjoying the time you’re giving yourself? Are you resenting it? Make sure you’re taking your own temperature on a regular basis so you can give yourself whatever self-talk you need. Remember that you’re doing this FOR yourself.No one is keeping track. There are no prizes except for the painting you end up with, and whatever skills. you build as a result of keeping up with this. Feel free to share in the comments.
See you tomorrow.
xo
Effy
P.S. Folks who are in my classes over on Into The Wild (my teaching network) or Patreon are getting video content every day throughout the course of this challenge. Folks who are subscribed to my YouTube channel will be getting video updates weekly or so. There may be stuff going up on TikTok. There will definitely be posts going up on Instagram.
Of course, this spot right here will ALSO serve as my studio diary, so I hope you’ll bookmark the site, and hey! EVEN BETTER! I hope you’ll sign up for the e-list, which I’ll use to let you know when a new post goes live. If you want the project PDF, here you go!