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Sunday 1 February 2015

Creativity Challenge Part 1

Blog 1, January 9, 2015


Happy New Year! I hope you made it safely into the year 2015. II wish you all the best for the year ahead, especially good health, the achievement of your goals, and good times with family and friends.

Last year, I was very fortunate to teach a lot which I truly enjoyed as I continuously learn something new when I prepare the lessons, and feel blessed that I am able to share my passion with others to make their lives more creative. However, my own work suffered in the process. With the additional work of writing my blogs and newsletters, doing the marketing for events and courses, I did not paint as much as I would have liked. Most of my new paintings were done during my two great painting trips.

To get to a better start, this year, I have decided to start the year off with a challenge for myself. For the month of January, I want to create an artwork every day. This will probably not mean that I end up in my studio every day working away for hours but I want to make sure that I create something new every day, whether it is a small drawing, a doodle, a mixed media piece, or a small painting.

I might even use the opportunity to incorporate some materials I have had in my studio for years without ever touching them. To be clear, I will not concentrate on creating a fantastic artwork but on experimenting and enjoying the process - something I always remind my students to do. Maybe, I get lucky and create something amazing but it is not the purpose of this exercise. I just want to get back into the habit of regular painting.

I will let you take part in the journey by documenting my experiences. So here is the look at the first seven days:

To tell right at the beginning, I did not end up creating something every day. Having made use of everyone being at home, we went on two long walks on the first two days of the year which were beautiful and tiring, and left me in the mood to curl up on the sofa and just watch a movie.

However, we saw beautiful colours at dusk during our walk on January 2, which inspired me to a small sketch with watercolour pencils. I intend to use this sketch to create a painting.




Day 3 and 4 of my challenge, we were visiting relatives in Montreal. While we were watching a Star Wars movie, I started doodling a sci-fi inspired creature. On Sunday, we were visiting the “From van Gogh to Kandinsky” exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts. This exhibition alone gave me lots of inspiration, not only for my own projects but also for my “Painting Like a Famous Artist” classes. Nevertheless, the only thing I brought to paper was a sketch of my daughter’s eye which I did while riding in the Metro.




Day 5 (Monday) meant back to school and work. While I got tons of work done, my creative challenge got pushed to the back seat again. During the walk with our dog I was so fascinated with the ice covered trees shining silver and gold in the late afternoon sun that I wanted to capture this miracle of nature in a painting. I started the painting of a group of birches Wednesday (Day 7).




On day 8, I painted this white lily for a friend. 

 


All in all I am not very happy with this week’s results, and have to admit that I thought about quitting and just writing a different blog for the week. In spite of the slow start, I want to keep going to see if I will be able to avoid neglecting my creative work whenever something else comes up that needs my attention.

If you want to know how my challenge will continue please log back into my blog next Friday. Happy creating!





www.KerstinPeters.ca

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