Autumn

The final season has been by far my most experimental yet. I have relentlessly tried out everything I have learnt over the past year, shifting my approach every day, as opposed to sticking to one medium for a length of time, as I was inclined to do at the beginning of this daily painting challenge.

One of my bravest experimentations was a large abstract piece created with oil sticks, whilst the entire process was streamed live on my Instagram channel. I painted on the spot, with no preconceived idea of the end result. This ambiguity really took me out of my comfort zone, but also made for an extremely exciting and freeing painting experience. It allowed me to just enjoy the act of painting itself, instead of being preoccupied with achieving a certain likeness.

Mid way through October, I had an exciting creative breakthrough. In search of a new technique, I decided to sharpen the end of an old paintbrush with a knife to create an ink stick, which I used to apply loose black ink lines to finish off the painting I was working on. The result felt like a natural development of the dripped line effect which I use in some of my other paintings. I felt inspired to paint many other pieces with my newfound tool, and I think my enjoyment of this technique comes across in the light rhythm of my lines.

Streaming live on social media has become like second nature. At first I felt conscious of the idea of people watching me paint, but now I am thoroughly enjoying the exchange I have with viewers. Answering peoples questions whilst I am painting makes me think more about what I am doing than if I was painting by myself.

To conclude my year of daily paintings, I wanted to finish with a few works on canvas, closer to my finished studio pieces to push what I could achieve within an hour of painting. My ability to create a quick painting to studio standard has improved massively as I have moved through the challenge.