day after day

January days slide by like no other in the year

I look forward to it... this month of quiet and darkness, often cold, with room in the day to think, to try, to do 

the month of renewal and new beginnings

I don't make New Year's resolutions but I always approach each year with a desire to do more of what matters and less of what doesn't

this year is no different and what is mattering to me right now is using some of the art supplies I have gathered over the years - take up those things and work with them

I'm not a trained artist and don't know a lot about paint and such but I like to get my hands dirty and see what can be done with what I have

the 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge is pushing me where I've been wanting to go and though I've kicked up a fuss a time or two, I've worked at it every single day and I've learned several things about myself already

the two most important are:

 I'm not afraid of slapping on paint or cutting things up

 BUT 

I do need a reason for doing what I'm doing - when there's no "story" I am at a loss of what to do

I figured out the first one on the first day; the latter just yesterday

another important thing I learned a long time ago is that the first few versions of a new idea are usually not what I actually want but it seems I have to get it wrong a time or two before I fully understand exactly what is key in what I'm after

so here I am on Day 9 of the Challenge and feeling like I am finally getting comfortable with my sketchbook - maybe I'll have myself a "39" Day Challenge!

(I've just realized Days 3 and 4 aren't here and the light's gone already so I'll take pictures and do a post about them later in the week)

Day 5

Take Risks

since I've never really worked in sketchbooks I had trouble with this prompt so I decided I would do an ink print of a pressed leaf on a textured background and see where that would lead (the "risk" was using one of my precious pressed leaves, a favourite)

the leaf pressed fine but looked rather silly plonked in the middle of the page and one section on the left didn't print well, so... I crumpled some tracing paper and stuck it over top of that side with matte medium, and painted it with indigo ink 

it all looked rather strange so I found a strip of linen covered in straight stitches and stuck it over the join

stranger still

then I found a scrap of painted paper with beautiful browns and smudge of dark blue so I added it to the lower right-hand corner

 the right side now looked like some kind of symbolic landscape and the left. well... it all looked rather weird

I was at a complete loss so I left it and moved on to Day 6

today I came back to it... remembered a piece I had done just before the Challenge began so dug it out - a stitched tree branch on paper and inked over - perfect

when I pulled it from the bag of paper bits another piece fell out - a thin strip of paper with black marks

it was from a larger piece I had done last year, trees drawn on paper and then cut into slices

that went on the linen strip, the stitched branch on the left and I was happy (enough)

I still like the right side best... it's like mountains, or an ice wall... a glacier maybe, with the dry earth and the promise of trees to come?

Day 6

Colour Cues

consider your colour choices and do something different

hmmph! I'd been doing that already with several of the challenges (Days 3 and 4) and as I was struggling with the whole thing in general I thought I would take it easy on myself and do what I liked

pale it was - blue paint, cheesecloth stuck down with matte medium, gesso and more paint, then glued strips of linen leftovers again - I haven't decided what else to do so here it sits

Day 7

use imagery

another tough one as I really don't go for that in my work 

I was struggling with the prompts, the lack of specificity so I started reading them the night before so as to have time to ponder them and what they might mean for me

and I had already used imagery in the previous day's work with the linen cross though I hadn't meant anything by it, just liked the look of it - maybe then it doesn't count?

I did know I didn't want to face another blank page in the morning so I took some of my carbon black ink, wet the page, drizzled ink on it and took up my palette knife

moving the ink back and forth over the page, "cutting" into where it pooled, scraping and pushing, eventually I covered the page

the next morning I saw mountains

fractured peaks, coming forward, receding, jagged

I loved it

each time I looked at it I saw something different... the strength of them, the fragility, cracked stone, the heaving of earth

mountains pushed higher into the sky, wind and water wearing them away

and in the centre, a dark eye... or perhaps an ear, turned on it's side

I left it as it was, the first thing I'd done I was truly happy with and no way was I going to mess it up

Day 8

Edges

hard or soft, everything has an edge and artist's usually have a penchant for one or the other

I like both

(nothing's ever easy with me)

as I was thinking this one over I thought about edges in a more abstract way, and how water and land are two edges we humans love to try and control

but water ultimately finds it's own way 

I began with a piece of tissue wrapping paper with a map print, tore pieces and stuck them to the page

to the right, a fragment of something I made two years ago, cattails, in paper and silk

on the left, small squares of paper, one flocked green with images of leaves and plants, the other mottled, splattered blue, for water

blue paint, a stitched line of green thread

I'm sitting back on my heels with this one, thinking about what else I might add - it may be done, it may not

I love how I can come back anytime and add more

I had thought I wouldn't add stitching to these pages, that I would make smaller versions of them on linen or paper and stitch on those but the urge to add stitch to the sketchbook pages is too strong and so I'm letting go of the small versions, at least for now, and focusing just on the sketchbook itself

the little one I did for Day 1 is finished so I added it to the sketchbook page along with an off-cut of the inky-black paper

I've come to realize that though the prompts for the challenge may be more abstract than I expected, they are helping me learn more about what I need in order to do the work I want to do

it's not supplies, or really even knowledge - I'm perfectly happy to make do with what I have and what I don't know I can usually figure out

I need a reason, a meaning

I need a story and a way to tell it