PicPerDay
My PicPerDay project started on May 5, 2011 and I’ve added a new image to it every day since.
It actually began earlier than that, in January 2011. I took on a work contract with www.swca.ca that required me to work in their studio everyday. One of the owners and art directors, Cindy Sheldan, had just begun a new phase of her “Per Diem” project where she would post photos of letter forms everyday. I joined in as a contributor to that phase of her project until it’s completion in early May. You can see the Perdiem project here. It was working on that project that gave me the bug to come up with some new creative thing to post everyday. Near the end of that project that I began using some of my recently completed abstract paintings as backgrounds for some of the script letter forms, and then actually began painting new backgrounds for them with the idea that it would help me practice and explore my interest in abstract expressionism. Some of those backgrounds actually became some of my earlier PicPerDay pieces.
I’ve been throughly enjoying this project and, so far, I haven’t had much trouble coming up with a new daily image. The biggest concern has been deciding on which medium to paint on. I began by simply using a pad of canvas textured paper.
PicPerDay came about through my contribution to Cindy Sheldan’s Perdiem Project in early 2011. (see: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.501524267072.277924.595812072&type=1 the full project can been seen here: http://perdiem.posterous.com/)
Durning my final month contributing to Per Diem, I began using some of my abstract works as backgrounds for some of the letter forms and by the end, began actually painting some of those backgrounds. I soon realized that I’d much rather be painting than taking photos, so at the completion of Cindy’s script letter forms segment of Per Diem, I started painting my PicPerDay pieces. The first piece, a photo, ‘Wire Script’, being a homage to the earlier project.
PicPerDay Series A
Acrylic on paper.
May 11 – Aug 10, 2011
When I first started painting these pieces, I began by keeping it very simple and regarding each piece as a simple sketch that might lead to a larger piece, so I began by working on a 12 x 16″, canvas textured paper sketch pad. I worked small and quick and soon figured out that the optimum use of the 12 x 16 page was to paint 6 pieces, roughly 4.25 x 4.25 inches each (See: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150297904367073&set=a.118766612072.108963.595812072)
It got the job done until friends started asking to buy them. That was a problem because they’re grouped and so small. To make them presentable I would have to cut out each and then present them in a 10 x 10″ mat and glass frame. I had to go out in search of a good framer.
PicPerDay Series B
Acrylic on unstretched canvas.
Aug 11 – Sept 6, 2011
The earlier canvas textured paper was ok for sketches but it had its drawbacks. The water based acrylic paints would buckle the paper making it harder to work on and to photograph. Also, if people want to buy these as artworks, I had to think in terms of the longevity of the material. The paper I had been using is a good grade, “acid free” paper, but it has no rag (cotton) content, so I can’t guarantee it’ll last more than a century or so.
For Series B, I found a pad of primed, unstretched cotton canvas that was slightly bigger than the paper pad at 16 x 20″. It allowed me to keep painting 6 pieces per page but each piece was now slightly larger at 5.75 x 5.75″
PicPerDay Series C
Acrylic on canvas.
Sept 7, 2011 – present
$45 (unframed)
The canvas pad was quite good, much better than the paper, but I found its canvas texture to be a bit …sharp. Canvas texture is such a subtle thing, there’s so many types and grades of cotton and linen canvas. This pad had a very tight, sharp weave that I found troublesome when using some of the more transparent colours (blues, yellows, oranges), the texture would just stick out too much and would require multiple paint coats, even when using a palette knife.
While searching for a good framer for the Series A and B pieces, I had a talk with Walter, the owner of Northwest Artist Canvas in Richmond, BC, who’s been supplying me with larger canvases for years (the very best deal on canvas in Vancouver). I told him about what I was doing with my PicPerDay project and, naturally, he asked why am I not painting on stretched canvas? Well, I ran through the reasons–I’m painting one per day and I don’t care if they sell or not, so using stretched canvases would immediately create all kinds of handling problems; mainly storage. Paper and unstretched canvas is flat so I can easily store hundreds of pieces in my flat file drawers, but canvas on stretcher bars are roughly half an inch thick each–actually, a canvas stapled on the back is .896″ deep, meaning a month worth of pieces would make a pile 26.9″ high–I’d be living surrounded in all these piles of paintings!
Also, I can’t paint them 6-up the way I was painting on the pads, which means slower production time. More handling all around.
But Walter made a good point: if I’m going to sell piece, I don’t have to put it in a frame first. A stretched, stapled on the back, canvas is ready to hang. It’s a very good point and enough to make me take on the extra daily expense and handling. So from Sept 7 onwards, I’m painting each daily piece on 10 x 8 stretched canvas. It’ll be more work for me, slower because I’ll have to also paint all four edges, but they’ll look nice and are ready to go if anyone wants to buy one. I guess if the piles get too high I can unstaple them and store them flat. Recycle the stretcher bars.