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!
I was up INCREDIBLY LATE (or early, depending on your perspective). Something was definitely IN THE AIR between Full Moon, the doc appointment I had yesterday, some uncomfortable truth telling about a controversial subject from my perspective that led to a very long thread that I had to moderate because it was getting hot in there.
Then a friend reached out in crisis, and I was *so glad* that I *was* awake.
By the time I finally curled up in the nest with a set of VERY CONFUSED furbabes (they are used to a much earlier bed time), it was FOUR A.M. FOUR! AY! EM!
Which reminds me of this talk by one of my favourite Slam Poets, Rives.
What IS it about 4 in the morning?!
Anyway, it was all what was meant to be and the moon kept me company through it all.
Today’s painting session reflects *waves at all of that*. I wanted to make some calm in the chaos and the best way I could figure to do that was to grab a fine tip Uniposca paint pen and outline some of the shapes I found in the layers I’d done in days 1-5.
It was RESTFUL, y’all. It was PEACEFUL. It was just what I needed.
No big revelations today, which is great. I’m having the kind of day where I do not want to learn anything new or be hit with any kind of eureka. I just want to putter and breathe and be.
One of my students slapped down a bunch of black gesso to her piece and shared that in the Discord, and I gotta tell you. I live for those moments. That’s the kind of tantrum I am HERE FOR. She felt liberated and the rest of us felt emboldened.
I just want to acknowledge the power of that kind of sharing today.
What about you? Are you doing this with a friend or ten? Are you a “Shower” or a “Grower” (giggles), but which I mean, do you like to show off what you’re doing layer by layer, day by day? Or do you prefer to let things grow day by day without showing anyone?
Please remember that this process is yours to tweak!
Sending love (and naps if they’re needed!).
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!
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!
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 FOUR
Today’s session was entirely inspired by the images of paintings made by the lovely humans in my discord server + my always present desire for sparkle. Stay tuned for a wee gallery of participant paintings at the end of this post.
I pulled out the metallic watercolours first because black gesso practically begs for it. I loved the pomegranate colour I used, but the blue and minty green fell kind of flat for me.
Then? Fluorescent Pink because someone in my Discord server slapped some down on hers, and it made me ridiculously happy to look at.
There’s something about fluorescent paint that takes me right back to the 80s when I could be found bumming around in neon everything from the fluorescent pink beret I wore down to the orange neon jelly shoes.
The silver ink that followed was a substitution for the white ink I couldn’t find and splashing a whole bunch of water out of it happened because there wasn’t enough water in the bottle to spray. I was literally thinking “Whatever…I’ll just do this” at each of those points, which felt REALLY LIBERATING.
Do I love how this looks? No. *lol* This is a mess. But I love how I kind of floated away after, delighted with the memory that came up when I slapped on that pink.
Denny’s at 3 a.m. with friends. Underage, yes, but happily drunk. Happily sweaty and all danced out. Happily young.
This was a very rare occurrence for me since I was already a military wife and my life while my partner was home was not fun or great. When he was away, though, all bets were off. I was seventeen, y’all. It wouldn’t be long before I was pregnant with my first, the lovely RJ, whom many of you have already met and while I don’t regret having them for ONE SINGLE SOLITARY SECOND, it is also true that life got very complicated and much more unfun for me after that.
You might think I’d hate to have these memories, but I don’t. These memories provide me with an opportunity to lavish self-empathy on the girl I was, and while, yes, these memories come with complicated feelings, what I DO with them is what matters. How I let them move through me matters.
Yesterday, I talked a bit about meaning making and how I don’t want to “assign” meaning just yet, but today served up the alternative, which I prefer.
The unbidden meaning. The meaning you know without even having to think about it.
That fluorescent pink means rebellion. It means stolen time. It means freedom I had to sneak away to experience. It means illicit joy.
Remember that I was SEVENTEEN, so “illicit” doesn’t mean what that word might been to a grown ass adult. I wasn’t doing anything I’d even bat an eyelash over as I live and breathe here and now in my 57th year. My gods, I was so INNOCENT then. (Queue Adia by Sarah McLachlan!).
But EVERYTHING that wasn’t what I was *told* to do, everything that wasn’t what I was *expected* to do felt deviant. It felt subversive. It was a quiet rebellion, but it was powerful, and it was mine.
Woosah. Right?
What about you? Are you experiencing colours differently when you work with them this way? Is there any “unbidden meaning” coming up for you? Does anything you’re putting down on the page remind you of anything?
Feel free to share in the comments.
See you tomorrow.
xo
Effy
Take a peek at what my fellow Discordians are doing!
Bettina
Carrose
Fionn
Jeanne
Jennifer
Michelle
Paula
Tracy A
Anne M
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!
Welcome, lovely humans, to The Painted Presence Project, where I plan to paint in silence for ten minutes a day for thirty days 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 THREE
Today, I came to the painty table with a desire to push back some of the white on the page with a glaze, so I pulled out my favourite colour to glaze with and went for it.
Once the pthalo turquois was on there, I pulled out the black gesso to push things back even further.
And then I went at it with a baby wipe to lift some of the black gesso off the piece so some of what I lost could be reclaimed.
Calming things down and making new space to work on next time feels like something I’m going to do a lot of throughout the course of this thirty days. When I come to the table and see a lot of chaos, however pretty it might be, my first instinct is make some kind of order out of it. It’ll be interesting to see what my first instinct is when I face this subdued, muted piece tomorrow!
I do find myself thinking about where this is going to go, but I’m making a note of those thoughts as they happen and then I shoo them off because that’s not helpful right now. Thinking about where it might go feels like pushing the painting to become what I want it to become, and that’s not really the point of this practice. I want to stay receptive for at least the first 20 days before I start trying to nudge things into some kind of theme.
Usually, when I paint, I want to get to the point really quickly, the point being the focal image. That makes sense as an art journaling teacher who comes in with a plan and wants to execute it so she can get the tutorial into the hands of her students on time. That doesn’t work for this practice, though.
I have to keep reminding myself that we’re NOT TRYING TO FINISH ANYTHING here. Yes, there’s a ten minute timer, but we’re NOT actually in a hurry. There is no actual deadline. Each day’s session is not about moving the painting forward. It’s about being with what’s there, with what’s within, and what wants to arise.
I’m also noticing that my brain is very eager to assign meaning. “This colour must mean this” or “that symbol seems to be speaking to this” and that makes sense because I am, at the end of the day, an art witch, and every painting is a spell. Decided what things mean creates an opportunity to call in more of it or, if I’m not loving what something means, I have an opportunity to push it back.
I don’t want to do this at this point in the practice. I want to be entirely desire led. I don’t want to stop to consider what things mean. That can come later, if at all.
For now, I want to treat this a little like I’m collecting words so I can write a poem later as though each day’s session is me cutting words out of books and magazines and tossing them in a box.
I’m not writing the poem yet. I’m collecting the words I might use later.
I don’t need to know what that gold circle means or where it might fit in the final painting. I’m just collecting things right now, and when I LET myself do that, this is a really peaceful and meditative process.
How’s it going for you? What are you noticing about what comes up while you paint? Are you freaking out about the holy mess of it all? Are you patient and trusting? Are you noticing the quality of the silence as you hang out in it? Are you noticing the impact of these brief moments of silence on you?
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!
Welcome, lovely humans, to The Painted Presence Project, where I plan to paint in silence for ten minutes a day for thirty days 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 Two
Today, I came to the page anxious about some interpersonal stuff (kids, amirite?) and a desire to drop all that off my shoulders, even if only for ten minutes.
I couldn’t feel the “next impulse” I usually count on to get me started, so I defaulted to gold paint. If you know me at all, when I reach for gold, what I’m really reaching for is some sense of the divine. It shows up *a lot* in my paintings because I am, at heart, a devotional painter. Witchy, yes, but also attuned to the great all there is.
I’m glad I reached for that bottle because that was all I needed to get me moving across the page.
Marks made in shimmering gold, I moved on to splish splashing on some acrylic ink in a muted grey that looks like aubergine to me, and muted violet that looks like pomegranate juice. A little white ink finished us off.
I noticed when I was done that I was hesitant to leave it as it was. There were some “this is really messy” thoughts underneath the urge to keep going, though, so when I blew out the candle, I sent up a prayer to the Invisibles that they’d look after it for me. “Bless this mess.”
Art mirrors life, my loves.
Bless *this* mess.
See you tomorrow.
xo Effy
P.S. By *this*, I mean *me*, in case that wasn’t clear. 😉
Here’s A Gallery of DAY ONE Painting Sessions by my participants on Discord.
Bettina
Carrose
Clare
Fionn
Jennifer
Michelle
Paula L
Selkie
The Rabid Artist
P.S. Again:
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!
If you are up for a challenge and you want to join me, I’ve got you, fam! Here’s the project PDF which contains everything you need to know to join in.
Welcome, lovely humans, to The Painted Presence Project, where I plan to paint in silence for ten minutes a day for thirty days 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!
I gotta say. This felt like a really good start.
I got up, made my tea, lit a candle, and took a few breaths, and then I grabbed a big brush and dunked it straight into dirty paint water, and yes, I did that on purpose. I didn’t want a careful beginning. I wanted to argue with the voice in my head that wanted this to be super precious and temple-tidy and perfect, and dirty water on a paint brush felt like the exact way to do that.
Then, I sploshed around with some watercolours in greens and browns and burnt orange.
MAKING MUD ON PURPOSE, EFFY?
Yes. Because I am always afraid to make mud, and sometimes that stops me from being brave with colour, so I MADE MUD, and lo, it was glorious.
I added some Liquitex acrylic inks in green and violet and some generic alcohol ink in gold and made use of my spray bottle to move all that around because DRIPPAGE.
At some point, I grabbed my glass dip pen and used it to make some marks in the ink that was already there.
Happy Sigh
Ten minutes. And you know what? It felt good. Like I’d made my own little world in those ten minutes. A place where nothing was pressing on me. No emails, no noise, no demands, no alerts. I thought I’d feel rushed because of the time limit and my awareness that the timer was set and would go off in ten minutes, but I didn’t feel rushed at all. I felt…
…I dunno. Like I was at home in my skin. Just me and tea (Dirty Chai with milk and honey), a stick of nag champa incense, a candle flickering, and silence.
Home.
If you’re doing this with me, I hope you find that too. Your own pocket of quiet where you belong only to yourself for a tiny little bit.
Today, I came to the page anxious about some interpersonal stuff (kids, amirite?) and a desire to drop all that off my shoulders, even if only for ten minutes.
