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 if I don’t set aside time for this 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.

Ever since the completion of that project, I’ve wanted to revisit my encyclopaedic source material, saved for many years, and approach the subject matter in a different way and with a different artistic tool kit.

The time feels right to revisit these books of knowledge and use them for a 100 day project.

December is a contemplative month. As the cold weather settles in and the skies open up to blanket us in snow, I’m snug inside reflecting on the year soon to be over before I begin to dream about the new year and plan for things to come. It’s in this reflective state of mind that I write about my art year 2022.

Making art is often, at least for me, a solitary pursuit. I retreat into my studio with my thoughts, and rely on my own intuition and actions to create something from the materials at hand. But nothing compares to meeting people, including other artists, and talking about art and the joys and the challenges of the art making process. This too is an important part of the journey.

As the days progressed, I recognized in myself a tendency to try to “make art”. I lost sight of just making for the simple pleasure of it and having the “art” be a byproduct of the making process.

I found a collection of small pieces of paper that I used in another project that had been languishing on a shelf for years. Imagine a fishbowl, just the right size for one little goldfish, filled almost to the top with scraps of torn paper all about 1” square.  Each square is painted either yellow, orange or red on one side.  Imagine that there are several hundred of these little goldfish coloured squares. 

My 100 Day Sketchbook Project began back on January 31st with the aim of developing a sketchbook practice that would inform my art practice going forward. Now here we are on May 10th, 100 days later, and what I know for sure is that I learned a few things along the way.

The first half of the project was intuitive and I really liked making 15 minute sketches during those first 50 days. As anticipated there wasn’t much time for thinking or judging my work so I just let my hands lead the way. It was really fun working this way. But now it’s time to move to the second phase of this project. It’s time to assess what I have, and to rework each sketch with fresh eyes and with new intentions. It’s time to really look at what I have and to decide what resonates with me.

I’ve never been the type of artist to have a sketchbook practice.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had many sketchbooks in my practice over the years. The promise of creative possibilities was always there between the blank pages of every sketchbook I ever bought...crisp and clean and white. So lovely in its newness.