I’m doing the 100 day project…are you in?

It is now three years since I completed the 100 day project and 2024 is the year I have decided to jump back in. Will you join me?

It is now three years since I last completed the 100 day project. I’ve done it twice - in 2018 and 2021. Maybe for me it’s a once in three years thing but who knows. The first time I made it very easy with tiny postcard offerings but in 2021 I set myself a mammoth task of a palm tree painting every day for 100 days. I did it in the 100 days largely I believe because we were the middle of the Covid pandemic and with frequent lockdowns it was a great way to focus on something positive.

‘Dance with me’ ©️Mary Price This is one of the palms painted as part of the 100 project in 2021 and it is available as a giclée print here

Looking back I remember that taking part also gave my art a focus as I spent each morning in the studio honing an image that I loved and discovering that you can paint the same subject over and over and that it need never look the same. The repetition of a motif gives creative leeway to explore and play. I had the relative safety of a subject but I did not allow the motif to in any way limit the exploration.

What I did set for the 100 palm paintings project was a size and time limitation. Each painting was made onto an A3 sheet of paper and I used a mixed media blend of acrylic paint and acrylic ink. I set a three hour time frame in which to complete each painting. By limiting and setting boundaries this gave me a safety net but also enabled a series to emerge gradually showing a relatable and connected set of paintings.

This year the theme will once again have a palm tree element but I’m not going to limit the size of the paintings or for that matter the subject as I want to explore working on different substrates and to create a series that creates the opportunity to scale up work and in some cases offer mini paintings. The time will also be a little more fluid depending on other commitments each day. This is, I have learned a more relaxed way of approaching what at first can seem like quite a daunting project into a manageable and achievable goal.

At the beginning of this year I had made it clear that I was not going to plan everything so this may seem like an immediate backtrack. However as we have entered 2024 I am noticing that I do currently feel a need to introduce some structure and also to encourage myself to actually get into the studio and start making.

The repetition of a motif gives creative leeway to explore and play. I had the relative safety of a subject but I did not allow the motif to in any way limit the exploration.

This time round, I’m going to use a range of substrates, including watercolour paper, cradled boards, gessoed MDF and canvasses. If I decide to go travelling whilst doing this project, the work will for practical reasons be much smaller because you can only fit so many art supplies into a small carry on flight bag. In a future article, I will reveal my favourite Art Supplies that I like to travel with.

This year, it suits me well to begin the 100 project on the 7th of February. As I will be painting every day and concentrating, largely but not exclusively, on a subject that I know very well, the output will give the opportunity to demonstrate the techniques and processes that I enjoy using by filming some of the paintings as they emerge.

It is my hope to share with you here the experience, the wins, frustrations and the bad paintings as well as those I’m happy with as I’m not going to allow stress to enter the fray with trying to make fabulous sellable art each and every time.

I will begin painting in February and making something every day for 100 days. I hope to finish a painting each day, however, I’m not going to beat myself up if I miss a day or if a painting is telling me it needs more than one day to complete. Realistically larger paintings often need to sit awhile and be contemplated or to rest. Also as I love to work on multilayered and often highly detailed paintings physically this can take time but we shall see what happens.

Are you going to do the 100 project this year? Do let me know as I am very interested to follow along with other artists who are taking part. I will be posting photographs of my paintings on my Instagram account each day using the hash tag #paintingsforpeace2024

Each week I plan to do a summary here on Substack, showing the seven (hopefully) paintings that I will have worked on during the previous week. It is my hope to share with you here the experience, the wins, frustrations and the bad paintings as well as those I’m happy with as I’m not going to stress myself with trying to make fabulous sellable art each and every time.

I hope to finish a painting each day, however, I’m not going to beat myself up if I miss a day or if a painting is telling me it needs more than one day to complete.

Having said that I will be offering the paintings I am happy with for sale to people on my mailing list each time I reach 33 paintings so you do need to be on my mailing list which is separate to Substack and here is the link.

One of the paintings created as part of the 100 project in 2021 ©️ Mary Price 2024

Just as an aside here - my mailing list is all about selling my art and Substack is all about sharing my arty life with you.

Whenever I offer paintings for sale, I do this by creating a secret webpage that is only accessible to people on the mailing list for the first 24 hours when the new series is released. The web page is opened up to everybody after 24 hours. It is highly likely that some of the paintings I make will also be offered in the future as quality giclée prints.

I hope you will join me on this latest painting adventure, and more than that - I encourage you to join in.

The 100 Day project was initially set up on Instagram by Lindsay Jean Thompson and you can read more on the 100 day Project Substack. The official start date is 22 February but it suits me to begin sooner so that is exactly what I am doing.

Recommended links

Follow along on Instagram

Visit my website here