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Sunday, January 30, 2011

50 Flowers in 100 Hours

"Menagerie"
Original oil - 6x6"

This is the first painting of my new project: "50 Flowers in 100 Hours". Yup, that's 50 flower paintings in 100 hours. (To be clear, that's 100 painting hours, not 100 calendar hours.)

The goal is that they will all be painted from life, and no more than 2 hours a painting. So far I'm 3 paintings in and averaging 3.5 hours each, so failing miserably. Being WAY too finicky, haven't painted from life for a while and it's showing. In addition, it's a stretch for me to tackle flowers, not something I am typically drawn to paint, and definitely an area where I will need to build some skill. My words to live by: "Simplify, simplify, simplify."

In keeping with the theme of past blog projects, each painting will be offered for sale by auction on ebay well below market value for a 7 day period, after which it will be available on my website at full market value.

Anyone care to join me?? :) Double dog dare ya....

13 comments:

  1. Well I never! Are there two moons in the sky? FLOWERS?! You won't believe this but I started a demo yesterday and finished it today. An Orange Day Lily. It's 5x7 and it came in at 2 hours. Suppose I should take you up on your double dog dare!

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  2. As the owner of one of your previous flower paintings, I think you're going to have no problem. You'll get into the swing of it pretty quickly and be dashing out gorgeous little gems in an hour. I can't wait to see them!

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  3. Wow, there's a challenge! I find putting a one hour alarm on helps - you get really engrossed and then when the alarm goes off you HAVE to stop and make a cup of tea and consider the progress so far. Then you're ready for the next hour. I love the composition and colours of this painting by the way - looking forward to more...

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  4. Love this idea and beautiful painting. Good luck!

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  5. Great idea about the timer Laurie. I'm really good at setting it, and even better at completely ignoring it if I'm not finished, but I never thought of actually contemplating for 10 minutes before the 2nd hour. I'll try it!

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  6. Now this is a real challenge, Liz. Great start and not surprised that it's a wonderful piece. Good luck and waiting anxiously for the next flower.

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  7. Wow, great challenge! I have no doubt that your paintings will be wonderful! Thanks for putting out the challenge to others. I'll watch yours since I am still learning from my try at 100 in 100 days. Made it to 50, over the amount of time. I learned a lot about pacing, and taking a bigger bite than I could chew. I have learned so much from watching your painting challenges.

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  8. Great project and I love the catchy name! What I really enjoy about your projects and posts, is your honesty - that you're stretching yourself with your subject (exactly how we increase our skills) and you're putting yourself out there and going for it. I applaud you you for that! But really Liz you always blow us away! I'm working on a project concept too and will get it together soon. Good luck I'll be watching!

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  9. a wonderful challenge and stunning painting. relax, this is beyond perfect!! looking forward to the next one. this is just wonderful!

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  10. Wow! Yep that pretty much says it all

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  11. Well, I can't wait to see the rest of them!

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  12. Beautiful painting! It is going to be wonderful to see the progression, can't wait!

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