100 Paintings of Trees on the Wall...
...100 paintings of trees. If one of those trees should happen to fall, 99 paintings of trees on the wall.
You know the tune.
In elementary school we sang this song on the school bus using the bottles of beer version. We were pretty badass little Jersey kids. Until we got home.
A global, online art project. Commit to 100 days of creating. Something. Anything.
Pretty simple, choose a creative project, do it every single day for 100 days, and share your process on social media using the hashtag #The100DayProject.
I needed a diversion, even if I thought that it seemed like a stretch to create 100 of the same thing for the first quarter of the new year. How boring, right??
Conversations I had with myself for about three weeks... "This is stupid. I have better things to do. Well, I could use a challenge right now. No, this is ridiculous, who has time for stuff like this? I have grown up things that need my attention. But what if I tried? Maybe generate some new ideas. I can keep it small, manageable, loose and sloppy, like a sketchbook. Nah, screw this. Too much time. What if I don't take it seriously? I'll get bored after 10. Maybe I could do at least 30, a month's worth seems like a good effort. Maybe half of the challenge, 50 would be impressive. No, I have too many others things to do. Oh look at these little squiggly trees I did years ago. Hmmm, maybe I could do 100 trees..."
50 trees later and I'm still going strong using only ink & watercolor on 6"x6" watercolor paper. Completely enjoying the process and letting myself be sloppy which was like telling my mom don't bother using a coaster.
It was tough at first, holding myself back from tightening up a line, not making a perfect circle and of all things, painting outside the lines! OMG!!
Like a parent saying, "I told you so," This "little" project so far has...
~ Kept me calm (most days, I may have snapped at someone in my household once...) while working full time and helping care for an elderly family member and on sporadic days add in a house full of college students.
~ Allowed me to not create "perfectly." Just sketch quickly and move on to the next one.
~ Experiment with colors outside my usual go-to's.
~ And just experiment in general.
No pre-planning just throw the pencil lines, ink and paint however they may fall.
The surprise so far has been receiving new followers, fans and interest in my happy little trees.
Some of these trees are giving me ideas for larger paintings incorporating a bunch of them into scenes.
Wondering if and how I could illustrate story books with my happy little tree illustrations.
I also realized that trees have had a profound existence within me and I have always been drawn to them. Just never drew them.
See what I did there?
Here's to the first 50...let's see if I have enough oomph left in me to complete the next 50...stay tuned!
