100 Days of Paper Paintings – Progress Report

Art supplies are expensive.

Yet artists, especially emerging ones, need to use them up (and continually purchase more) in order to increase their skill and hone their voice.

This can be tricky when painting sales are down AND one is aware that focusing on selling the work can stifle creativity and lead to ‘safe’ (read ‘boring’) art.

Ideally, we want to banish the idea that materials are ‘precious’ and just keep making work.

Enter the ‘100 Petite Paper Paintings’ Project (because I like alliteration…).

‘Petite Paper Paintings’ project details

Knowing how challenging a long-term project like this can be, I set myself up for success by creating a weekly schedule:

• Saturday – prime five to seven 5 x 5 inch stretched canvases with grey gesso (I prefer a coloured ground as it feels less ‘stark’ to work on than white)
• Sunday – choose a new colour palette, select some interesting stencils, compile a variety of papers and use my gelli plate and acrylic paints to create a stack of mono-printed and layered papers
• Monday through Friday – tape the edges of a primed canvas, cut papers in interesting shapes and re-assemble on the canvas surface using gloss medium – layer papers one over the other to create depth and intrigue – seal with gloss medium, remove the tape and touch up painted edges

I’ve had no difficulty staying on track, and am surprised to find that this daily practice has rather quickly become my ‘go-to’ warmup exercise each time I enter the studio. I notice that I’m able to turn off my ‘thinking’ brain and work intuitively for 30 or 40 minutes in a complete state of flow. And that working with paper has made it easier to drop into the larger works on my studio wall.

I’ve chosen colour palettes that I normally wouldn’t when creating a large painting and found myself drawn to include more graphic elements than previously. I particularly love turning the little squares around to discover the most pleasing orientation to photograph them in.

I’m looking forward to where the next 25 will take me, and invite you to follow along here, and over on Instagram, where you’ll find all 25 (and those to come) shown individually under my ‘Paper Paintings’ Highlight.