Thursday, February 16, 2023

the dailies

the days have begun to find their rhythm and i have begun to find mine

rather than trying to focus on any one concept or technique i decided to take a bit of a looser, freer approach

it's a rather simple one  called "scratching an itch"

when there's something i think i'd like to try i just go for it, doing the best i can with what i have

 loose watercolour paintings have always appealed to me so the other night i had a go... the results were less than good - no palette knife and too thick a brush made for clunky trees; a lack of control over the water yielded a few good blobs

i tore it up, rearranged things a bit and added some marks with a white posca pen

still not great but there are a few areas I like and it reminds me of creek that runs along the alaska highway in whitehorse... partially frozen, lined with evergreens that still look more black than green in the waning winter months


the next day I tried again... a bent paper clipper subbing for the absent palette knife, a white crayon for resist and better control of the water... this time, willow branches and shadowed snow beneath a grey sky


i've also found a few more phrases and words in the poetry of robert service and now i've begun to work with them in a calligraphic manner

i signed up for a workshop by Brody Neuenschwander 


it's the perfect thing to work at during nap time, few tools are required and it's quite a meditative thing to do

the other day i felt like stitching so added a couple of scraps of lace to the piece you see below... as I was considering where to attach the lace i thought it reminded me of japanese calligraphy

something else to consider


so everyday something... trying a few things and seeing what comes of it

in film, the dailies are the unedited production work each day that are then processed and reviewed... these small things I work on each day are that for me... doing, looking, evaluating and then sometimes trying again

calling them "the dailies" somehow takes the pressure off

i like that

4 comments:

Rachel said...

Yes, very much something of the expressive play that feeds into other ideas. And even if you found the materials misbehaving slightly, you have a fabulous grasp of tone, so you produce something that makes sense, even if the shapes are maybe not what you were aiming for.

Christine Barnes said...

Sounds like you have settled into the perfect flow of creativity which lends itself to trickling in and around your daily schedule and I can imagine how relaxing it must feel. Love your resourcefulness too, using stuff you have and finding things to fill in for the things you haven't.

Karen said...

beautiful painted studies Jillayne, the Yukon is good for your soul I can tell.
I adore the fabric swatches in the last image.....

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Your experiments are endlessly fascinating to me. Not only from the standpoint of what you create but the materials you use to create with. I'm a girl who normally likes colour (jewel tones mainly) but another source of fascination for me is your incredible use of black, grey and white. You're reminding me of my desire to create one of my landscapes in B&W. Who knows, maybe it will happen sooner rather than later.