Week 8 – 100 Days of Art

We have met and exceeded the halfway point in this challenge. Week 8 brought day 50 and beyond. There is still a long way to go, many pieces to be created, however, we are on the downhill return. Should be simple, right?

I am not alone in this challenge. There are many artists participating, some of us posting daily to 100dayartchallenge2023 on Facebook, some to our Instagram pages. This blog, as you know, captures only my journey. Take a look at that Facebook page, if you like, and then come back.

Day 50

The official halfway point in this challenge. Today, the prompt was Celebration. I chose to take a closeup look at three leaves that had fallen from our poinsettia plant. Two were crispy and wisened, the other a fresh fall. With more time, this would look different, but for today’s challenge, it was a beautiful time of slow painting.

Day 51

The prompt was Monochrome. Where I sit at my desk, I look out onto our backyard. Right in front of me is our apple tree. Of course, at this time of year, it is bare of leaves, and stands naked and proud with many watershoots asking to be pruned. We hang a bird feeder from a lower branch and this provides endless entertainment for our winged friends as well as ourselves as observers of their antics.

This depiction provides a bark rubbing of the tree in the background with charcoal and pencil for the main picture.

Day 52

Today allowed me time to reflect on a memory from our spring journey into the Chilcotin area of British Columbia. There was still snow on the ground in May. On one detour from the highway we came across a pine tree that had fallen and was in various stages of decay. Its crown of branches was closest to the road and I took many photographs of cones and needles changing colour beautifully.

Here is one of the cones, face on, close up. The prompt today was “closeup”.

I listened to a podcast about improving one’s art business, and so each suggestion, for me, is captured within each “branch” of this cone.

Day 53

Today the prompt was to be inspired by a wild animal. I had to work at the gallery. There are four painted pebbles on my display and so I took them, turned them over and used Promarker pens to depict their shapes and how the shadows and light fell on their cool bodies. (The relevance to wild animal works if you think of the water causing the smoothness of the rocks to be an untamed, wild animal.)

The jumble of rocks to the right were imaginary, and created using a continuous contour line – something I had learned earlier in this challenge.

Day 54

The prompt was to try material not usually used. Luckily for me, I had visited our local art store the day before and bought a starter pack of gouache. I had been watching a number of artists on video using this medium and thought I should give it a try.

This picture is the view from Buccaneer Bay, Thormanby Islands, looking west toward Vancouver Island.

Painting the person sitting in the foreground was an afterthought, the last thing I did before calling it a day. I think it adds to the mood of the painting.

Day 55

Another day at the gallery. This morning I had come across an artist’s work in graphite and charcoal of paper wasp nests. We have a paper wasp nest that has been attached to our roof over our deck for the past two years. It has amazed me in its construction, more so now as the layers are being blown away and the tiny cavities are in full view. I had often wondered how to capture the structure as a piece of art, and now I knew it was possible.

I took a few photographs before leaving for work, and spent the afternoon happily playing with graphite to try and depict one tiny area of nature’s art.

Day 56

The weather changed and became very cold, and then the snow began. I laughed when I read the prompt for the day: “Weather”.

I gave my new gouache set another go and happily played depicting the view outside. I laid out newspaper for the final part – the creation of snow. Using a very loaded and wet paintbrush, I splattered droplets all over the painting, more and more, not realizing quite how far these droplets were flying.

By the end of the painting, I looked around and realized there was a lot of cleaning up to do before the paint dried!

And so, this brings us to the end of the first week of the second half of the challenge. If you were to depict a snowy day using art materials, how would you do so?