The first week in January each year I write down tangible goals for my art business. Most of the items are based around marketing, exhibitions, residencies, grants, and internal business updates. However in order to expand myself creatively, this year I challenged myself to try different techniques, surfaces, mediums, sizes, and subjects in my works throughout the year, even if I didn't plan to sell any of them! In order to actually hold myself accountable for following through creatively, I assigned myself to attempt something new to me each month of 2021.
Originally I wanted to try 12 different painting techniques in 12 different paintings over the course of 12 months, but then I reconsidered as I didn't want to box myself into just painting techniques: I wanted to include experimenting with different surfaces, subjects, and compositions that I hadn't tried yet. Cue: 12 months/12 Experiments.
If you follow my instagram @kerstinglaessart you probably have already seen this painting as a work in progress on my stories.
February- POINTILLISM.
The beginning of this work was very similar to a traditional oil painting. I outlined my work in chalk, filled it in with some color, and tried to show depth through shadows and highlights. Normally I worry about sculpting when I paint, but this time I was alright having the paint lay flat on the surface (maybe I will try this with other paintings like landscapes?). After I was done with the base layer, I went back and added dots of color as a top layer to convey the pattern on the shell. I definitely took the safe route and only used the pointillism for a straightforward pattern in this painting, but it would be interesting to use pointillism to show a more complex organic pattern showing non-linear texture throughout the work, or the background.
You can watch the timelapse of me painting this work on tiktok.
Note: At the time of publishing the work is not currently for sale.
xo,
Kerstin