10 Works

I wanted to share a little more about my goal to create 10 works of art each month, since I hope that the work I will create will be a big part of this blog.  At the beginning of each month I decide on all the important parameters of the artwork for that month.  Each 10 works makes a sort of collection and I want them all to be cohesive and follow the same theme.  I want this for two reasons: One, when I create something similar ten times, ideas start to flow from that and my original idea expands and takes new turns.  Two, I don't want to spend time making the major decisions over and over again.

Let's take my art for January as an example.  This month I decided that I wanted to make my own version of portraits.  I knew I wanted to work with oils on canvas and I decided to make them 12" square.  I didn't have to make those decisions again all month and that saved me a lot of time.  Each morning I woke up to get to work, I knew exactly what materials to grab and what I was doing.

For these paintings, my idea truly did evolve.  I did these five first and painted the face in.  That was my original idea.

Then, when I did the 6th one, I decided that I didn't want to paint the face in, so I didn't.  I loved that so much that I continued that idea for the last four paintings.

Nine of these paintings will go up for sale in my shop and one of them will be added to my personal collection as a reminder of what I've done.  Only eight are currently posted because I'm having a hard time deciding which one to keep!

This system has been working very well for me.  I love the opportunity to create collections, try something different every month, and while ten works of art are a lot to get done, I find that it's just the right balance between hustling and stressing about it.  For February, I have already been thinking about what I want to do and I am excited to introduce that next week!