5/23/21 Week Two Reflection

   As my time with senior project is coming to an end, I am able to thoroughly reflect on two full weeks of art. This week specifically has been more rhythmic compared to the previous week because I have just been focusing on painting the Umbrella Street piece. This week has also been more stressful compared to the previous week because it seems like time has just completely flown by – I kept thinking that I had more time than I actually did. It also feels like I have just inched along with this painting: I will spend hours on it and then look back and realize that I only added a small section that I feel should’ve taken less time. I was able to go into the studio today (Sunday) and work for about an hour and a half, but in that hour and a half I only added some umbrellas (which really does not look like much but I have a lot of trouble when it comes to spacing and proportions). 

This week one of the things that I learned is that I am someone who needs mental breaks from art. As much as I love art and am obsessed with it, I tend to lose steam if I do art too much in a condensed period of time. If I am able to take breaks for a while and then return to my work I am able to see my art with fresh eyes, and return to working with rejuvenated energy and motivation. This was reinforced specifically during this week because since I really haven’t had a long art break during my senior project, it has slowed me down while working on the Umbrella Street painting a little bit. 

Even though the process for this specific oil painting has been up and down, I have very much enjoyed this project. This piece that I am working on is definitely a challenge for me because it is such a busy scene and I am working on a very large canvas, but all in all I have loved this challenge. I love the color palette and the textures and the overall vibe that this scene brings, and I love the connection that the Mackenzies have to this piece of art. Just today Annie was pointing out how the building with balloons was a restaurant that her family loved to go to, and I thought that the personal connection was very cool. During this week there weren’t very many surprises besides just how slow my progress has been feeling to me. Most of the week was spent in a rhythm of me adding more and more to the same painting which made the days flow together more than the previous week. 

This week was a super important week for my senior project because this specific painting has a lot of meaning. I did a commission in the winter for one of Jill’s friends, but this commission is a bit more important to me because it is for someone who I am very close with–Annie Mackenzie–and it is referenced from a photograph that she took. This week was when I mainly cranked on this piece and got a lot of it done – now I just have to add a few more things and clean it up a bit. This has helped me get closer to achieving my goals because I have been creating a piece that will probably stand out in my portfolio, and I have been trying to figure out how to establish a website (I am not technologically savvy, so that aspect of my project has been a bit of a struggle so far). Overall I had a productive week despite feeling a loss of steam. 


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