Morning Paintings (completing the first sketchbook)

When I started my morning painting ritual my only goal was to fill this small sketchbook that I had dedicated to them. It's a Seawhite of Brighton Eco Sketchbook and it only has 32 pages, but still I found it rather ambitious of myself. And now it is full!

If these morning paintings have taught me anything it's that a painting a day goes a long long way. ;-) It really shows me that if you do a little bit on a regular basis something gets built up and it's a very different experience to know this by actually living it than just thinking it.

Here are the last nine painting of my first daily painting sketchbook:

9 + 10 February

#24 - whimsical town

#25 - folklore heart

11 + 12 February

#26 - triangles

#27 - tea party

13 + 14 February

#28 - ornaments

#29 - house with cat

15 + 16 February

#30 - chevron

#31 - mandala

17 February

#32 - tulips

As you can see I've been playing a lot with whimsy. And I also have started using acrylic paint markers to go over the gouache painting to spruce them up a little.

I have to admit that some of these (the last one for instance and also the triangles) were simply not finished to me by the time I had to stop. I don't know how some of those other daily painters do it, but I'm seriously starting to doubt their claim that they can do a full on painting in 30 minutes! At least I know that I can't. The ones I like that are a bit more elaborate take about 45 to 60 minutes, but on my work days I just don't have that time. I am not going back into those later to finish them, because I want this book to be about process and not product and this unfinished business tells me I did the best I could with the time given.

Now that this book is finished I have moved on to another sketchbook, because quite frankly I think I have become a little addicted to this morning practice. ;-)

But that's for another morning paintings post. May there be many of them. ;-)

Have a good day all!

From the Picture Book

I keep a Picture Book. It is pretty much what its name says it is: a book for pictures. Pictures I cut from magazines, pictures I took from the internet, pictures I took myself with my camera and any and all kind of other pictures that inspires me. I also refer to it as Printerest (you know, a printed Pinterest of my own making?).

I try as much as possible to name the artists of the works I like, if only so I can look them up later, but I'm not going to not put an image in if I can't find its source. My approach to copyright is mostly pragmatic. This book is for my personal inspiration and enjoyment and I have no intention of copying anybody's work.

Both the looking in this book and the adding of new imagery is relaxing. It's a very simple way to play with imagery.

I'm curious if you keep a physical picture book as well and how it's set up? I don't do Pinterest and find this paper book way more satisfying. How does that work for you?

Hope you are all inspired by beautiful pictures around you and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day.

Introducing the Canson Book (the new journal)

When one book closes another one opens, and since I recently closed Flora I had to open a new journal.

Because Flora was a rather big girl (I know, I still talk about her like a person) I wanted something smaller this time. I chose an A5 Canson Art Book, which pretty much looks like this:

Just a rather ordinary black bound sketchbook. I'm calling it The Canson Book, because...well...basically I couldn't think of anything better. ;-)
 
To give it some colour in advance I spent some time putting gouache on the pages with a sponge, so that even if I did nothing else to them there'd at least not be a row of blank pages with writing on it.

Anyway, I've been working in this book for a few weeks now and I am really enjoying the smaller size. I like the compactness of it and the portability.

Here is a peek at the first few spreads:

I'm sure that once this book is full I will be craving another size and format again, but that is still a while away.

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day!

Morning paintings

Here's another batch of morning paintings for your viewing pleasure. Every morning I get up extra early just so I can go into my studio to paint for a little while and fill a page in a sketchbook. It's a good practice and it's good practice if you know what I mean. ;-)

Here are the paintings I did between February 1 and 8. Enjoy!

1 + 2 February

#16 - imaginary flowers (inspired by Laurie Girardin Vissian's patterns)

#17 - old cemetery in Gouda (after my own photograph)

3 + 4 February

#18 - drops

#19 - dots (here you can see clearly how gouache can rub off!)

5 + 6 February

#20 - Vuurboetsduin (after my own photograph)

#21 - circles on black

7 + 8 February

#22 - fantasy bird

#23 - seagull whimsy

Now as you can see by the last two paintings all of a sudden my morning paintings took a whimsical turn. I have no idea why, but I've been having a lot of fun with it both in this sketchbook and outside of it. That's the cool part about doing things like this: you never know what it will lead to!

I'm hoping to explore all this whimsy and imaginary stuff further and see what happens. I'll keep you posted. 

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day.

Come into my studio!

Come into my studio. Have a look around. Feel free to touch anything that strikes your fancy. And maybe we will sit together and play with all the goodies for a while. I'll make you some tea too, I don't mind.

Now go have a wonderful and artsy day!