moment by moment

“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”  

~ Buddha 

A painting every day.

I am taking a class online with live Zoom lectures and a private class facebook page. Because that's how things are done in the pandemic early 20's. It's fine, great in fact, but I am working very hard to keep up with the pace of assignments and exercises. 

Our instructor is someone whose career and technique I have followed for a least 10 years now. 

Duane Keiser is a well-known painter who is the inventor or first to use the idea of "a painting a day".  He began making small paintings of everyday objects and scenes, most of them small but complete works of art. He sold them using ebay and auctions and the idea became quite successful probably because his work is sublime. Now there are many artists following this trend and selling using auctions online. It is also a trend now to use the internet to sell and avoid art galleries which have become more and more out of fashion.

My class is strenuous! I did my undergraduate degree at The Art Center College in Pasadena, California and I thought I knew how to handle stressful assignments and deadlines. This is bringing it all back.

Our first exercise was to paint 100 gesture paintings in oil, each one timed to take no more than 10 seconds. Then we wiped off the panel and started another 10 second painting. Whew! Then we started another series with all the time in the world, all of 5 minutes! More color exercises at 20 minutes each followed.

Now we are at the real work of the class, producing a painting every day for 30 days. We began in the first week of February. And really, what else will you do with your time in February? It's too cold and miserable to go anywhere.

I chose a coffee carafe for my 100 gesture paintings. Too simple? Not at all.