100 days of painting intuitively: an update

100 days of painting intuitively an update

When you take on a big project, accountability and tracking your progress – both the successes and the failures – is important to not only see how far you have come, but also to see what is working and what isn’t. As I approach the half-way mark of my 100 day project – 100 days of painting intuitively, which I started back in April, I figure the time is ripe for an update.

My 100 day project is taking longer than 100 days!

 

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Had I plugged on with my project every single day, it would have lasted a little over three months. But here we are at the start of August, and I am still on day 50 of 100. A forced break of almost two months, first due to ill health and then due to a massive heatwave, threw a spanner in my plans. Add in some vacation time, other ideas that captured my interest and attention, and that accounts for the rest of the delay.

But I am still working on my 100 days of painting intuitively, so what if the 100 days are spread over a much longer period?

The aim of my 100 day project: painting intuitively

 

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My sole aim for the 100 day project was to dedicate a length of time to understanding and improving my skills at intuitive painting, and here it didn’t disappoint. I’ve had a mix of paintings that came together relatively quickly, some that really put me through my paces, and others that had me pulling my hair out in frustration until it all came together in the end.

Over this time, my approach to painting intuitively also shifted and changed. In the beginning, I would just come to the canvas with no ideas about what I was going to paint, allowing the mood and the inspiration to move me as it willed.

 

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Then I shifted to coming to the page with an intention of some sort – it could be a quote I held gently in my mind as I painted, or a piece of music, or an emotion or feeling. Eventually, I started to play with synchronicity – using oracle cards to hold space for a new painting to emerge on the page.

Developing a new intuitive painting ritual

 

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This process also led me to create a new intuitive painting ritual, which includes the drawing of a few oracle cards, a spoken word intention, a circle of crystals, and a blessing of the paper/canvas that I am going to paint.

While I have used oracle/tarot cards, crystals and intentions as part of my art process since a few years, I haven’t used them in combination. The addition of the canvas blessing seems to bring in spirit {or the creative muse} much more strongly. My work has more depth, more energy, more meaning. I seem to tap into a larger force as I paint, with much less resistance and anxiety over the process or the outcome.

This, to me, is art becoming magical. And this is just the first step to something bigger that is wanting to come through – I just need to patiently tease it out.

And so, I plug away with my 100 days of painting intuitively, open to seeing what will unfold next.

In the meantime…

Some inputs, please?

 

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I’ve been toying with the idea of putting up some of these paintings for sale – both originals and prints. Could you tell me which ones are your favourites?

And if you would buy prints, what size would you prefer – something small like an 8×11 inch print (standard printer paper size) or smaller, or something big, like 11×16 inches or more?

In case you’re wondering, most of the paintings featured here are on 11.5×15.5 inch archival paper.

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Posted in On My Art Table.

I’m an artist and art educator, podcaster, tarot reader, and writer. I share my discoveries along the path to inspire you to live a more creative, soul-centered life. Receive my love letters for more of my musings on life and creativity. P.S. I love Instagram - join me there?

30 Comments

  1. Love them all, Shinjini! Your posts are so inspiring always. Must tell you I’m in awe of your beautiful paintings and both the sizes you mentioned would work for me. Personally, I love to display paintings on the walls so I’d prefer 11×16 but another person might prefer the postcard size. Keep at it, dear! Good luck with the project. I know you’ll ace it.

    • Thank you so much, Esha, for the encouragement and the kind appreciation. It really does mean a lot to know people like and connect with your work. Thanks for the inputs on the sizes too. Need to figure how to get all of this to work!

  2. 100 days of intuitive painting! Sounds interesting! So what if it’s taking you more time? As long as you are loving every bit of it, it doesn’t matter how long you took to complete it, does it, Shinjini? Keep it up, girl! It’s really inspiring, watching an artist work religiously at a challenge this tough!
    Love!

    • That’s the mindset I went in with! I’m ok with however long those 100 days take me, as long as I can learn from them (and I have, a lot!) And yes, it’s quite a tough challenge – I didn’t anticipate just how tough even a working challenge would be!

  3. Wow. You are not just a writer but a painter too. Love your beautiful masterpieces and would like to buy if you sell them commercially. Lets connect on twitter to discuss further – Prerna_wahi

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