Would I do the 100 project again?
What I learned on my recent commitment to 100 paintings in 100 days
At first I thought I would feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment at completing the 100 project last week. But the over riding emotion is relief that I am no longer strait jacketing myself to a self imposed activity every day.
When I began to paint in early February the days were short and the weather miserable so the painting brightened everything bringing some colourful positivity into winter life.
Riffing on a theme for the most part this time - at least 80 of the paintings focused on palm trees and mini rainforests has been amazing.
Painting gives a sense of purpose as well as being something that undoubtedly makes life interesting. I have done the 100 project twice before. The first time it was a much simpler challenge. I painted a postcard each day spending about 10 minutes on each little painting. Back then it was about establishing creative moments and seeing where the ideas took me. It was quite a relaxing thing to do and 10 minutes is easy to find in a day.
The second time I followed a similar path as the challenge I’ve just completed by painting an A3 painting each day but times were very different. We were in lockdown during the global Covid pandemic and creativity was one of the things that really kept me sane during the restrictions we were all placed under. Time felt elastic and having a dedicated project was a welcome distraction from the fear, boredom and uncertainty.
Riffing on a theme for the most part this time - at least 80 of the paintings focused on palm trees and mini rainforests has been amazing. This is a recurrent theme in my output and has been for decades. I love how tropical imagery gives so much licence to express various emotions and by working on the paintings intuitively a vehicle to explore colour and mark making. One thing the challenge teaches you is that imagination is an amazing quality if allowed a free rein and there are no limits especially when you become more deeply focused on your own painting processes.
My style is distinguished primarily by creating colour contrasts and mark variation. I like my paintings to have an energy about them and making tiny marks moving in multiple directions amplifies the movement of the palm trees.
As I painted each tree I made a conscious effort to bring in new ideas. Sometimes this might be a simple case of changing the starting point moving from multi coloured backdrops in some of the earlier trees to single colour first layers in other paintings. I learned so much about how spoiling a painting doesn’t matter and how it’s always possible to find a resolution if you press on. Acrylics are a forgiving medium and layering colour gives endless possibilities.
Each day I posted a painting on Instagram and this in a way became my personal accountability check. Other artists doing the project were egging each other on and this support network was really good for spurring action on days when I felt that I had had enough.
One of the key positives I found was that creativity really does have no bounds - if you just get on with it something will emerge. I kind of know this but the theory is pushed when you decide to commit to a painting a day. For the most part I painted palm trees and rainforests but the intention to relieve boredom was originally to switch up the subject every 20 paintings.
Paintings 20 to 40 were all about portals, windows and arches. This again is a reoccurring theme in my paintings. The truth is that I actually cheated a bit. As I was about to go on a trip to Spain and Portugal at this point in the challenge I painted these 20 before leaving because I wanted the holiday to be just that without the pressure of a painting a day. But as I spoke to others doing the project everyone does it their way. So cheating - well maybe - but I prefer to think of this as managing a commitment through doing in advance.
The enormity of creating such a large series is I think the stress with the project. It’s all about the number and reaching and completing that number.
The portals are a subject that has always excited me. My favourite thing to do on holiday is to meander around back streets, peering in through open doorways at courtyards filled with potted plants and little arches and stairways. Here are some of those images.
What I love about these images is the interplay between memory and imagination. When I travel I always spend time drawing in cafes and noticing the things and the atmosphere surrounding me. When it comes to drawing on those memories there is always material to use. In some cases for the these paintings I looked at old sketchbooks and photographs to revive what was already in my head. I generally move very speedily away from the subject matter in hand and let my imagination run riot with colour and so on but having a starting point was sometimes useful in sparking the beginning stages of the painting.
The portal paintings were all made into squares whereas all the remaining 80 were made on A3 watercolour paper.
I am unlikely to do the 100 project again. I found myself restless to do other things but being a stickler told myself that to stop would be an admission of failure. Failing is something that I have no real problem with but having announced an intention I felt compelled sometimes unwillingly to press ahead.
Each time I went into the shed to make the paintings I found it useful to listen to an art podcast so there felt like there were friends in the room talking my language. I love Art Juice and the Lauren Horn art podcast but also Ed Reardon’s Week for a bit of light relief.
The enormity of creating such a large series is I think the stress with the project. It’s all about the number and reaching and completing that number. However with each individual painting once I got into the flow it became all about that painting. Messing it up, resolving the mess, trialling new ideas, colours, brushstrokes, mark making tools and so on. The thing that most attracts me to painting is the way that it enables you to ground in the moment.
In some of my Instagram posts I mentioned how the painting became like a morning meditation. On these days I was mostly feeling very positive about the challenge.
For the final painting which I named quite aptly ‘Freedom Palm’ I went large making the painting on to a wooden panel. The word freedom was not just about finishing the challenge though - it was also about how painting larger gives more space. I used some of the favourite techniques I had discovered but also paired back the detail. I have a desire now to become a little more abstract in my paintings. Although all of the palms are abstracted I became excited in this final painting by my own version of sparseness and the introduction of some new marks and renderings. I intend to explore this further after a bit of a break from painting.
The big positive is that I have a wonderful series of interrelated paintings to offer to the world now. But in the future I will resist the painting a day - it imposes too rigid a commitment to my creativity and puts an unnecessary pressure into the equation.
The paintings from this series will be offered for sale in mid June and those on my mailing list will be given access to a password protected web page 24 hours before the paintings are released generally and the web page made visible to everyone.
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All images here are ©️ Mary Price 2024 all rights reserved.
Absolutely brilliant to have achieved this level of discipline. The interesting thing with disciplines such as these is what it does to us. The question I see is ‘what will happen to ME if I do this?’ This is a piece if research in itself. The external product becomes a by-product. Does this make sense.
They are beautiful though…especially the portals. I’m like you, can’t resist a peek through tiny doorways into hidden courtyards. I think that’s my dream, to have a house with a lush, colourful inner courtyard and a tiny nondescript door in from the street. Also, with you on the whole ‘100 days’. It’s so hard to continue once the muse wants to explore different things, but having said I will I will.