Day 1

I completed a painting yesterday. I was pleased with it. It was fairly spontaneous, but responsive to an idea floating in my head since September. I will upload that soon. My wife and I were chatting about it and a project I was working on with my Middle School students based on Andy Goldsworthy's artworks. Andy Goldsworthy creates artworks in nature wit only things he finds in nature, in the place he is working. The artworks have a lifespan dependent on the environment. I.e if a work is made out of ice, when it gets warm out, the artwork melts and is no more. Goldsworthy photographs the life of the artwork and may show this documentation as the representation.  So, we had this idea...

     What if I painted a painting each month, documented it, and, rather than buy a new canvas, just paint over it and start again. We discussed options or self imposed rules. Each new painting must maintain one part of the prior painting. The painting at the end of the year would serve as the final painting, and each underplayed painting would be documented with it.

    Our discussion continued and settled on the idea that blogging the process, writing notes and thoughts on each painting here, with video and pictures, would be a nice way to do this documentation. It could be shared easily with whoever is interested and would be fun to share with my students at school. Therein lies the explanation for this blog! I hope it is a success, and I hope you enjoy and follow along this year!

Thanks,
Philip Shaer