 So, I decided to board this 25 Days of Minis bus and paint 25 paintings. What was I thinking? Now I had to decide WHAT TO PAINT!! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, read my blog about it HERE). I don’t really paint scenes that lend themselves to holiday-ification..... but it will be the holidays when these are seen and I don’t want to ignore that. Hmmm. One thing I've been sure of from the start was that I wanted to do 2 series ....break things up a bit. That’d make the painting more interesting for me and it’d make the presentation more interesting for YOU. It did make the beginning process a bit more difficult…Deciding What To DO!! Ah yes, we are back to that. SERIES 1: I knew I wanted to do plein air, to keep my urban vibe, because after all, that’s what people know me for and something I enjoy doing. But how do I give that a holiday twist? I knew I’d be painting in the fall so snowy scenes were out and it’s not like we get much snow in Delaware anyway. Christmas lights and decorations…same issue, it’s too early and not my shtick really. Hmmm. Think. Think. Think. AhHa or maybe HARK would be apropos! Hahaha What’s that…? Streets and Steeples? Has a nice ring to it…! I wish it had come to me that quickly, but at least it came to me! So, 13 of my 25 paintings will be plein air paintings aka… Streets and Steeples. It’s just the right amount of Urban Holiday for me. Maybe I have created a new genre! Enjoy these in progress and detail shots. You’ll have to wait just a bit longer, till December, to see the finished version. I don’t want to ruin the surprise!       SERIES 2: Call me a rebel but I really wanted to throw all caution to the wind and try something VERY different with this series. Something unexpected, colorful and playful to match that aspect of the season. I was excited, apprehensive, even a bit scared of blowing it completely but I had to try this…. even more so for those very reasons. To start, I took all 12 panels and put them together. Then I painted a simple sketchy urban scene on them as if the large panel were a single painting. Then I threw some paint around trying to be free and random. At this point every small panel had marks and color on it. That’s all I needed. Now I could separate the panels and react to each small panel on its own. Curious enough, I initially found I worked on 3-5 panels at a time. I think this helped to keep the series cohesive. Plein air is do it on the spot, go, respond, paint, done in a matter of hours. These I have been working on for months now and the process is quite intuitive. I make marks, then step back and analyze, contemplate, then make more marks, add more layers and keep going until the thing seems to mesh as a painting. But I must say, I am liking what is developing. I LOVE that it is so different from what I have done before but relates to my past work too. This whole experience has been a learning curve and developing these 2 series has been a different approach for me. I hope you'll tune in for 25 Days of Minis to see the results and also expose yourself to so many other talented artists work. Register at www.25Daysofminis.com for a daily email from Dec 1 - 25 so you won't miss a thing. You can also Bookmark/Favorite my page of minis and check it out every day too...altho I recommend you register for that automated email so you do not have to remember for yourself every day at this busy time of year! I know I am looking forward to seeing what the other artists have been up to. Please feel free to comment and let me hear from you. I want to know what you think of my 2 series. In the meantime...Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!
Sarah
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