Team Chat - Subject Rotation, staying fresh

The last team chat post was about "Painting to a Conclusion". Part of a process I used over and over to develop "Paintable Subjects". I added it below to my learning process.

MY ORGANIZATIONAL BULLETS

• Observational skill - painting what you see - as in painting shapes, light and shadows with colours you see.
• Developing paint quality, as in juicier brushwork - lost and found edges - the painterly aspect.
• Painting to a conclusion - developing paintable subjects. (ONE PAINTING AT A TIME)
• Subject rotation - keeping fresh and engaged 

 SUBJECT ROTATION

This post is about the next BULLET - "Rotating Subjects" a structural part of my painting process. As a daily painter one subject led to another and ultimately to rotating a number of subjects, always connected to a conclusion.........as in one painting at a time. My focus was never distracted by unfinished ideas lying around.

When a painting idea or binge was concluded, after studying my results and to keep my momentum going, I removed all paintings from my studio to encourage fresh ideas. This time off allowed me to collect my thoughts, think about the next idea, stretch a few canvases - watch a movie....anything.

It was always about recharging, keeping fresh and engaged and avoiding frustration or over thinking an idea. I hope this typical early example shown below helps visually how it worked.

A TYPICAL MONTHS WORTH OF PAINTING 

(AUGUST 2009 SNAPSHOT)

 #127 Sunset plein air Bird Park 11x14 oil on panel  (8-5-09

 INTRODUCTION TO LONDON via VIRTUAL PAINTOUT

 #128 Virtual Paint-out London (Google) 8x10 oil on panel (8-6-09)

Artist Bill Guffey, founder is still doing the The Virtual Paintout using Google Street View (with permission). Thanks to Bill, he introduce me to a simple way of painting global subjects from my studio.

Basically, you  search a different location each month with a group of other artists and paint the globe from your computer! Bill posts the teams results on his blog. I treated it like plein air and amazed with the results. Clever idea and worthwhile doing! That is unless you can hop a plane for a visit! That works too

Another idea, is using real time live cams readily available all over the internet......not done it myself but no reason it wouldn't work. 

 PLEIN AIR LED TO AN INTEREST IN NOCTURNAL EFFECTS

 #129 August Moon 12x12 oil on panel (8-8-09)

CONCLUSION

 #130 August Moon 18x24 oil on linen panel (8-11-09) 

(2nd of (2) OPA 2009 Eastern submission)

  PLEIN AIR - SUNSETS

 #131 Libby Sunset plein air 8x10 oil on canvas panel (8-8-09)

 #132 Libby Sunset plein air 8x10 oil on canvas panel (8-8-09)

CONCLUSION

 #133 Twilight Dip 18x24 oil on linen panel (8-14-09 private collection)

(#132 used as a colour chip - first ever nudes)

ANOTHER BACKGROUND IDEA

 #134 Secrete Falls 18x14 oil on canvas panel (8-16-09)

MOVED ON - SUBJECT CHANGE

 & 

A CONCLUSION TO #128

 #135 London Eye 18x24 oil on linen panel (8-18-09 private collection)

When I painted #128, didn't know what it was other than a big butt ferris wheel. I was quickly informed it was called the "EYE" so #135 was given a proper name.

RETURN TO #134  AS A NOCTURNAL
(The falls setting still had my attention)

 #137 Secrete Falls 24x18 oil on linen panel (8-24-09)

MOVE TO LARGE FORMAT
(40x30 on linen)
(Based on 137 and previous plein air & studio full moon nocturne's)

 #138 A Moment in time 40x30 oil on linen (9-5-09)

Because I kept a digital record (including a calender record) of my painting history from the very first painting it was easy to reviewing how I got from "A" to "Z". It was remarkable how valuable and informative these simple organizational tool were to my development as a painter. It showed the process clearly, snapshot after snapshot how one thing connected to another.  And what it took to continually raise the bar and why it was necessary to raise it......often because of outside competition.