Katie Jeanne Wood

Mixed Media Artist - daily painter of portraits, flowers, abstracts and birds

Refreshed: 5 minute painting – day 5

5 minute painting
day 5
Work in progress
daily painting: 365 day art project
Day 141
Painted on Dec 5, 2017

One of the things that’s surprised me the most about 5 minute painting? I find it exhilarating. To be honest, like a dog with an old stale bone to chew, I was getting rather bored and disinterested in daily painting. It was beginning to be a routine I had down to a science. You know how routines get..dull and tedious. Start a painting, finish a painting. Photograph, list, blog. Day after freaking day.

Y a w n. 

Since I started doing 5 minute painting, I’m now completely refreshed and excited about the project once again. 

Today I listened to Down with the Sickness by Disturbed
Waaa ah ah ah ah!

PS: I think I can now say this painting is 18×14 inches, but ya never know. Things could change tomorrow. 

The hours in between: 5 minute painting – day 4

Katie Jeanne Wood - 120417 Painting in Progress5 minute painting
day 4
Work in progress
daily painting: 365 day art project
Day 140
Painted on Dec 4th, 2017

What I’ve realized about 5 minute painting is this..painting so briefly, and then taking a long 24 hour break in between is quite interesting. I’m a different person when I approach the canvas the next day. I’ve eaten (cauliflower crust pizza, heeey!), I’ve slept (hopefully, well, although it’s rare with 3 cats in the house), I’ve lived a little, watched some Netflix, played some games on my phone, made and drank a huge pot of raspberry herbal tea, had an argument with my husband, worked on a bunch of other paintings, wrote in my paper journal, read a lot, hung out on social media, answered Etsy convos, played with the cats, laughed so hard I cried, had a few too many cocktails, sang some goofy songs, loved, hated, loved some more, listened to music, texted far too much (cauliflower pizza pics for everyone!!! LOL), and well..whatever else I can fit in there. You know how life goes. 

What I’m noticing is the hours in between change me, and because I usually start and finish a painting in one sitting, this is new to me. I love the unexpected things that are happening when I approach the canvas as a brand new person each day. It makes life as a painter more exciting, and less predictable, for sure. 

Today I listened to Counting Stars by OneRepublic while I painted. 

Icanseethefutureinmycrystalball – 5 minute painting day 3

Katie Jeanne Wood - 120317 Painting in Progress5 minute painting
day 3
Work in progress
daily painting: 365 day art project
Day 139
Painted on Dec 3, 2017

Why I thought I could predict the future yesterday, I have no idea. “Tomorrow I will wet sand it to make the surface smooth.” Really, Miss Icanseethefutureinmycrystalball? haha Obviously, I was talking out my ass. 

Look
If you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted
One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?
Yo

When I approached the canvas this morning, I had an immediate urge to lay down some collage papers, so that’s what I did. My head immediately went into freak out mode.

Wait wait wait wait..don’t you remember what you wrote? You’re suppose to be sanding..stop stop..you’re gonna mess this all up. What are you doing??? Making a liar out of yourself?? Oh, I see how you are! You think you’re soooo smart. Stop it! I DEMAND YOU STOP NOW!!! Ah, screw it!! You ain’t gonna listen to me! 

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s spaghetti
He’s nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to drop bombs
But he keeps on forgetting what he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud
He opens his mouth, but the words won’t come out
He’s choking how, everybody’s joking now
The clock’s run out, time’s up, over, bloah!

Sometimes, you just gotta tell your head to take a seat/shut the ::bleeeep:: up, and be confident that your gut has this. That’s what painting intuitively is all about. 

 the beat goes on
Da da dum da dum da da

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime

And…hands UP in the air. 5 minutes is over, just as quickly as it began. If you haven’t guessed, I listened to Lose Yourself by Eminem today as I painted. It’s a song I listen to frequently because it energizes me, and gets me moving, especially if I’m feeling sluggish or tired. 

Just Enough Time: 5 minute painting – day 2

Katie Jeanne Wood - 120217 Painting in Progress - 2nd layer 025 minute painting
day 2
Work in progress
daily painting: 365 day art project
Day 138
Painted on Dec 2nd, 2017

I took one look at the canvas this morning, and cringed. I know me too well, and I knew I couldn’t continue without doing something about the texture of the canvas. I decided to spread modeling paste over the top of the chalk and pastels. I knew ahead of time that it would smear the pastels and chalk together, and the colors would bleed through the paste. I also knew I’d be able to get a decent photo to show my results for the day, and that I wasn’t going to turn the canvas completely white. 

I had just enough time to get it finished in 5 minutes. Tomorrow I will wet sand it to make the surface smooth. It might be all I get done in the time allotted, but we’ll see. This will probably be the only day within the 30 days that I know ahead of time what I’m going to do the next day. The rest of the painting will be done in the moment, and be a surprise, even to me. 

At this time, it’s not clear if the painting will be portrait or landscape, in shape, not subject matter. It could go either way. I’ll have to figure it out later. All I can tell you is the size is 18×14 or 14×18 inches, depending on what I decide. 

Reading: The art of being alone (CANTICLE 6 by May Sarton) 

 

5 minute daily painting – because you CAN get a lot done in 5 minutes a day, and I’m going to prove it

Katie Jeanne Wood - 120117 Painting in Progress - first layer5 minute painting
day 1
Work in progress
daily painting: 365 day art project
Day 137
Created on Dec 1st, 2017

Sometimes you want to run away, sometimes you think you do, but you never had a dream like this before and you don’t want to ask for more, sometimes you leave a mark before you know the score. -Ric Ocasek

This is the beginning of my new theme for the month of December. 5 minute painting!! Laaaa! 

I want to start off by saying, I never begin a painting this way. I usually either immediately start putting down collage papers or I prep the canvas with modeling or molding paste. I’ve written about my dislike for painting directly on canvas many times in the past, but to quickly recap, I’ve never liked the texture or look of finished canvas paintings. Too much of the canvas texture shows through, and I lose sight of the painting..all I can see is the canvas underneath the painting. It’s too distracting to me. I know, I’m weird, and I mean no offense to artists who paint directly on canvas, for sure. It’s just one of my little idiosyncrasies.  

Since I only had 5 minutes, and knew I needed a photo to show my progress, I decided to forgo my usual routine. I was leaning toward using modeling paste, not collage papers, but then all I’d have to show for my time was a white canvas. I figured that would be a boring way to start this challenge. Instead, I thought eh, I can get past all the crazy in my head about canvas texture, no problem. I got busy making marks. The whole time I was doing it, all I could think was ugh. I HATE this. I didn’t like how the chalk and pastels felt or looked going on the canvas.

I kept pushing forward because 1. TICK TOCK – TIMER! and 2. my goal on this day, which I quickly made up in my head to distract me from my weird canvas phobia was to completely cover the entire canvas. I must say, even though I didn’t like the process or the result, it was still a success. I had a smile on my face as I threw my arms up in the air when the timer went off. It was a fun start to a new month of daily painting. 

Reading: The Immersive Power of Painting (a painting truth you can learn too late) – this is somewhat similar to what I wrote last week about 5 minute painting. Maybe? Just a little? 

When you’re not happy with a painting change it

 

Katherine-Jeanne-Wood- Before and after Flower-Series No 148

Before and after

The painting on the left was okay, but I didn’t like it. I put it online about a week ago, and took it down the next day to revise it. I photographed it again, and relisted it. The photo above on the left was taken after the first revision I made. I thought I could live with it the way it was, but it kept gnawing at me. I still didn’t like it, but I had already revised it once. I kept asking myself if I really wanted to go through all that again. It’s a lot of work to pull something down that’s already online. Still, the thought of this painting hanging on someone’s wall nearly drove me crazy. I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I disliked it. I knew I couldn’t let it go out the door like this, so I changed it. Boy, did I, huh?  

Katherine Jeanne Wood - 16x20 Flower Series No 148 01

Whoa, right?! 

The only thing I left the same was the vase. I changed the flowers, and background. Now, I like it..finally. No, actually I LOVE it. I think it might be my new favorite. 

Katherine Jeanne Wood - 16x20 Flower Series No 148 02

This painting took me about a month to paint, but it taught me a good lesson. If I’m not happy with a painting, I need to keep working on it until I am. Otherwise, it’s going to cost me much more time and energy. I’ve photographed and edited photos of this painting 3 times. If I had just listened to the little voice inside my head telling me to slow down, and keep painting, it would have saved me a ton of work.  

Katherine Jeanne Wood - 16x20 Flower Series No 148 03 Katherine Jeanne Wood - 16x20 Flower Series No 148 04 Katherine Jeanne Wood - 16x20 Flower Series No 148 05

Flower Series 148 
16×20 Still life floral painting
Impasto palette knife painting
Mixed media collage art
Available for purchase here

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