Art Practice Year in Review
A winter sky.
As the year draws to a close, it’s once again time to take stock of my art practice.
It’s all too easy to forget what’s been accomplished over the course of a year without this kind of reflective exercise. So with the help of the notes that I’ve made along the way, I look back on my art year of 2024.
Words for the year
Do you choose a “word for the year”, a word or phrase to help guide your intentions for the year?
In my first studio note of 2024, I wrote about my own words for the year, “assemblage” and “simplify” and how these two words would be my dynamic duo of guiding words for my art practice.
For me, the word “assemblage” captured my interest in using found and painted papers (and other ephemeral materials) in my art practice. While it’s true that I began making small collages using found paper from old books, no finished work was made through this process.
What happened instead was that I began to experiment with making primarily single colour paintings. By single colour paintings I mean that one colour takes centre stage in the composition and the other colours have the assignment of being the supporting cast of characters that help to elevate the star of the show.
These paintings took shape gradually as the surface interest was built by adding layer upon layer of colour: Daubing paint on in small patches, changing colours with every new pass on the painting, building the painting over time always coming back to the idea of a single colour painting.
A studio reminder of my word for the year.
Perhaps this is how my “assemblage” intention manifested. Not in the way anticipated or perhaps hoped but in another equally appealing way.
It’s also plausible that “assemblage” became irrelevant as the year progressed and as my interests were drawn elsewhere.
As for “simplify”, my other word for the year, some might argue that limiting a colour palette by having one dominant colour in a painting is one way to bring simplicity into the work. With each painting I reminded myself that my intention was to make a painting that couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than my chosen hero colour.
While my process still involves adding lots of marks and colours in the beginning of building the surface of a painting, I’ve also learned that simplifying with large areas of a single colour or colour washes adds impact to a work of art. A large area of a singe colour offers the eye a place to rest and a refreshing counter point to more active areas of a painting.
The #100 day project
I have loved the #100dayproject in the past.
I have also not loved the #100dayproject in the past and given up half way through.
This year I began my 100 Day Encyclopaedia Project certain that with the project I’d chosen I’d love the #100dayproject once again.
It started off well as I experimented with paper, pencil and paint, assembling small mixed media collages.
One hundred days is a long time though. My early enthusiasm for the project gradually waned as my attention was drawn in an entirely different direction. I began skipping a day here and there and then doing extra work on another day to try to catch up.
It was just past the half way point that I knew it was time to let go of the #100dayproject completely so that my hands were free to grab hold of something else that had greater appeal.
The something else was the colour yellow.
Hello, Yellow
As a little girl, yellow was my favourite colour. Bright and saturated, sunny, warm and cheerful yellow.
In the past, I've shied away from fully embracing my once favourite colour in my work choosing instead palettes that often featured more sober colours and colour combinations.
That is until recently.
Yellow had begun to appear in minor ways and in small works in the Wander with Me series of paintings. But I had never fully explored the possibilities of the colour yellow before.
That changed this year when, while working on a large painting, I was reminded of my love of yellow and the tentative steps I had made to use more yellow in my work. I asked myself what would happen if I fully embraced yellow and made work that was all about the sunniest of colours. How could this idea of a yellow painting be pushed yet still make it interesting and engaging? How much other colour can a painting contain and still be a yellow painting?
Sundrops 3
Sundrops 4
Using yellow on that first large painting was so resonant for me that I embarked on a series of yellow paintings for much of the year.
Working with yellow was a delight, happy colour that she is. The paintings that came from this process are joyful and have been well received by my audience. Working this way got me thinking about how I might explore making single colour paintings using other hero colours besides yellow.
Thank you yellow, you’ve taught me a lot.
Final thoughts
Even while looking back on all that 2024 has brought to my art practice, my thoughts have begun to shift towards the possibilities ahead. Late in the year I began experimenting with primarily blue paintings. I expect that this is just the beginning of making “single colour paintings” as I work my way through the colour wheel. I imagine each colour getting their turn in the spotlight on my painting wall. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Any more planning for the year ahead in my art practice will have to wait for another time.
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