Drawing Group:4-8-2010

How something starts

In 2010 I have started a new method of accomplishing goals and creating happiness that was inspired by the book by Gretchen Rubin called "The Happiness Project". For me, the book gives me ideas on how to keep track of goals, how to get out of the box and do new things, and discusses one of my favorite topics- philosophy.

My friend Nicole and I were talking one day while I was at Chesterfield Arts (where I teach painting classes) about what we weren't doing I think versus what we needed to be doing. Nicole mentioned wanting to start a group painting session in an effort to re-start her own painting endeavors as she had been absent from it for way too long (due to the demands of her job and the recent birth of her daughter).

With the 'Happiness Project' in mind, I was instantly very eager to start something with a group, as being in a group is usually motivating and contributes to the overall success of a project. Also, I felt going somewhere to paint would remove me from my own distractions- the dinner/family routine, the toddler screaming for food, the day to day. I try to go to drawing group from time to time, but was really feeling I needed to make solid progress with my painting these days. I hoped this group would give me a chance to do just that.

As it turns out, since the start of our group, most of my work these days has been done when we meet every Tuesday. Every Tuesday I lug large paintings, bags of paint, jars of turpentine, etc. in the car and drive a semi-long distance to the CA wondering each time if it is worth it. More than a month later, I am assured that it is, because consistency is key- and as I said, I am doing a large bulk of my work around the others.

The posted pieces are of my "Aloe Painting". The piece on the left was the initial sketch and you can see from the piece on the right how much the piece changed in terms of composition. This is how I start many of my pieces- they are sketches of figures on grids- that I draw with paint, then re-draw over and over in an attempt to create good composition. Along with this painting, I created two others- a medium sized piece with three figures in the composition: all of the figures are relatively small in this piece. The other piece is a triplicate image of one of my models- my niece Madelaine painted upside down in triplicate. Out of these three pieces, I felt the aloe piece was the strongest, and the one I wanted to work on the most.

I started bringing the 'Aloe' painting to our group and have been working on this piece from the groups start until July.