ARTISTS TALKING

# 1 [29 April 2009]

Well, Hello there,

 I have started this blog to supplement my other blog http://danyoungdaily.blogspot.com/ which  documents my current project. I am attempting to make a painting every day for a year (at least). As of today I have made 156 paintings nearly all of which have sold.

I post the paintings on the blog then auction the painting through ebay. Surprisingly, nearly all of the paintings have been bought before the paint is even dry!

 I cannot imagine not painting a picture everyday its almost an addiction. Each painting is the same size 16cm x 12cm and oil on gesso board and the objects usually have a significance to the day they were painted on and must all fit within the small white 20cm x 12cm platform i paint them from.

But, as I get further into this painting odessey I find myself wanting to paint other objects that dont fit the rules of Dan Young, Daily. Which is why I have started this blog to give an insight into the studio and other work that may appear!  more for me to organise thoughts and ideas but other folk might be interested too, you nosy buggers!

# 2 [28 May 2009]

I cant believe it was a month ago I started this blog as an adjunct to my daily painting project http://danyoungdaily.blogspot.com/ . Apologies for leaving you all hanging like that.

Painting a complete painting every day is fast becoming secong nature to me at the moment, I have been doing it for 186 days straight now. I love the way a project like this snowballs. I began it merely wanting to force myself into finding a bit of time every day to do the thing I love, painting. I made the decision to try and sell the work on ebay as a way to make the endeavor pay for itself in terms of paint, brushes and materials. Plus if a lot sold I didnt need to find storage for 365 paintings! To date I have sold all but 7 paintings, a satisfying amount for any artist in the current climate. 

As the popularity of the site and the paintings has grown I have discovered followers in most corners of the globe from Slovenia and Australia to America and Japan. This is extremely exciting and I love hearing from people who like the work. Its also interesting to find out how people found out about it, one chap is a self confessed lichen and succulent 'nut', he discovered the painting of a lichen covered twig in an ebay search for 18th Century engravings of lichen and is now an ardent follower even suggesting some plants to paint!

I have just passed the halfway mark and am already thinking about how to continue next year. I plan to retire the size, 16cm x 12cm to keep the first year cohesive feel. But as to the direction I will take after the 23rd of November.....who knows. I do know I will continue my daily doings!

# 3 [2 June 2009]

I thought the most difficult days to make a painting in my odessey would be family holidays. The christmas day and boxing day paintings were hard to fit in but eventually nephews who are under four years old do sleep so you take adavantage of the quite time and paint a sprout or one of their toy boulders. But making this saturdays painting while camping was slightly tougher. First of all you have to make sure you take everything you need and pick a limeted pallette of colours, while at the same time not knowing what you will paint. You also have to find time in your busy schedule of laying out in the sun, BBQing all your meals and using the wash up facilities on site. It's a tough life. But I was blessed when we spent the afternoon at cleawell caves in the forest of Dean which is now an iron mining museum but used to be a working Iron ore mine. The red oxide in the caves is quite spectacular in some areas and it was a piece of iron oxide that I painted that day.  I also made my own oil paint out of some pigment they sell there made from the rocks from that very mine! Brilliant.

# 4 [22 June 2009]

I thought I would update my small part of the web with some new paintings. I completed these paintings far too close to the deadline date for the Threadneedle Prize last week. But I got them in on time and they were dry! Thank you Mr Siccative!

I have used the library of objects that I have built up over the 200 odd days of my current daily painting project http://danyoungdaily.blogspot.com to select from. Some of the objects I painted during this project I have  kept on various shelves and pots around the studio not really knowing why but always wondering how they would work together in small groups or even large groups of all of them. 365 objects in one painting, oh boy!

These three pictures grew out of a selection process based on sympathetic or contrasting ideas. So, the soft kangaroo head gets paired up with a sharp mussel shell and (for added anticipation and excitement) an unpopped popcorn kernel. Three very different and, other than their previous selection by me, completely unrelated objects.

I have spent some more time over the weekend creating small groups of  objects limiting myself to things I have already painted. More soon I hope.

# 5 [3 August 2009]

'How blogging helps you make paintings you wouldn't normally make'

Through making a painting everday you have to be pretty creative in the things you find to paint. This will sometimes lead to some expected subject matter, like a lemon or a sweet pea flower. Sometimes an object will present itself that might be unrecogniseable without the title, #253 beetroot root for instance. I love those ones! I find myself wondering if other people find things like beetroot roots that have two 'tails' and a wierd shape and dont do anything about it? If you do, take a deep breath and a moment to think about it, then you can throw it away..whatever!

http://danyoungdaily.blogspot.com/2009/08/253-beetroot-tail.html

# 6 [26 November 2009]

I have finished my painting challenge to paint an oil painting every day for a year visit here; http://danyoungdaily.blogspot.com

and have promptly started a new year of making drawings everyday! If you like there are now over 365 paintings to look through and find out what i got up to last year!

I may have an addiction because I dont feel like I can stop...Blogging or painting! I have a little seasonal project planned next month so keep following my daily pictures and watch out for more daily doings!

# 7 [21 January 2010]

My internet presence is growing! not only can you follow http://danyoungdaily.blogspot.com you can also find out more about my other work by visiting my new website www.danyoungart.co.uk where there is a selection of the daily paintings and others some from a few years ago and some newer stuff...enjoy!

# 8 [3 March 2010]

part two:

How long does each painting take?

DY: The oil paintings took anything from 5 mins (I think only one was that quick) to a couple of hours but most took around an hour at most. I think it got quicker throughout the year and could paint and post in under an hour on a good night. The watercolour paintings are very different because I need to wait for some areas to dry before I can move on to other areas so they can take a bit longer to finish but I am probably not working on them for as long. I am lucky enough to have my studio at home so I have a developed a great technique where I nip upstairs to paint in the ad breaks during TV programmes and allow it to dry while I watch tele. Other times I will make several other paintings at the same time and rotate which one I am working on.

Are you inspired by any other artists?

DY: Yes all the time, just thinking about that way of working by painting several watercolours at the same time is something that JMW Turner did! I have always been inspired by Velasquez, I love the way he uses lively brush-marks to describe things, the impressionists for similar reasons as well as their use of colour. There are a whole load of other daily painters I look at who are a constant source of inspiration and competition.

Who is your favourite still life artist? Why?

DY: I love 17^th century Dutch still life paintings, Eduard Manet, Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Georgio Morandi, Lisa Milroy, Claus Oldenburg…

But favourite I think has to be Van Gogh mainly because of the everyday nature of his paintings especially the still lives. I like the honesty of them, like the famous painting of his boots – possibly made because he has just taken them off, or painting a bowl of potatoes because he has them in his kitchen and will eat them later. I love the way he shows us the things (and places) he has around him and tells us so much about him and his life, and those around him.

Do you take suggestions on what to paint each day? Can we influence your decision?!
 

DY: It all depends on how good the suggestions are! How about you give me three ideas and we will see……

# 9 [3 March 2010]

A big thanks to Bicester Community college year 11s art group for these questions and good luck with your still life project. I thought it might be interesting for everyone else, so here you go!

Did you like art at school?!

DY: Yes, very much, on my first week at secondary school I got lost on my way between lessons and was found by my future art teacher (Mrs Byrne) where I was given a lovely antique pearl handled gun to draw.  A great way to make friends with the Art teachers.

Are you naturally good at painting or did you learn it?

DY: I have always drawn and painted so, it is probably a healthy mix of lots of practice and enough natural ability to keep me practising.

Have you got better by painting/drawing everyday?

DY: Yes, definitely! That was one of the things that started me on this project, I wanted to see how good I could get at something by doing it everyday.

 
How do you select your objects?

DY: Lots of different ways is the quick answer, but I have a set of rules which I break every so often but that’s what rules are for (especially if you have made them up yourself!)

One key rule is the objects have to be a certain size, for the first year of oil paintings the size had to fit your hand so I would be able to paint most of the objects in a similar scale. But this year I have made the paper different sizes, which has allowed me to paint slightly larger things and smaller things! Another important rule is that the objects have to have something to do with the day they are painted on, even if it’s just that the object caught my eye and I wanted to paint it on that day. Another rule that I haven’t broken is that the object has to fit entirely on the board/paper. Which means I never paint a small section of a larger object.

Lots of them are food related/half eaten why is this?

 DY: I eat food everyday. The half eaten aspect is a useful device that allows me to include other textures into the painting, for instance the jam doughnut painting would be a squashed brown ball with no jam visible if I didn’t half eat it. So by taking a bite or two I can reveal both the jam and the fluffy pale inner dough of the doughnut, helping the painting tell the story of what it is to be a jam doughnut! It also stems from an early painting in year one when I suddenly realised as I bit into a rich tea biscuit that I had found my subject matter for the day! Plus, I get to taste what it is I am painting while I am painting it.

When do you paint them? Same time daily or not?

DY: It does vary a bit but, during the week I tend to paint in the evening around 8 to 9 o’clock but the weekend can be very different.

Do you have a proper job?

DY: Mmmmm sort of! I work as a Fine Art Technician at The University of Gloucestershire and also teach evening classes in painting and life drawing

Have you ever missed a day during Dan Young Daily? If so why?

 DY: No, I am hugely proud of the fact that I haven’t missed a day in the last 465 (and counting) days. I have had two close calls however, one evening I was working late, got home about 9ish had something to eat and relaxed into the evening then suddenly realised at about 11 o’clock that I hadn’t painted so, very quickly made a painting of a lime and just got it listed at I think 11:55. The other close one was a few weeks ago when Debbie (my partner) cut her finger and we ended up in casualty until 11, we rushed back and I made a painting of a dressing and micro-pore tape.

Do you allow yourself to paint the same object twice in the year?

DY: No that’s another rule! I do allow myself to paint the same thing in different years, although a few days ago I did paint an elastic band and the next evening I painted the same elastic band but incorporated into my elastic band ball. A minor infringement of the rules.

# 10 [15 June 2010]

When I began to paint a picture every day http://danyoungdaily.blogspot.com I knew I wanted to develop my relationship with paint and painting. What I didn't know was that that relationship can be as rewarding/frustrating and complex as a relationship with a real life living person. I have just read Sandra Erbacher's break up letter to painting -  http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/635183 and found myself thinking about my own relationship to it (sorry Sandra I have been in a relationship with painting for some time time now! Two timing medium that it is).

I have felt like 'breaking up with painting' before and indeed spent a few years making digital work but, I 'came back' because, well.. I missed it. I missed the activity, the smells, the way paint feels like sh*t or silk (depending on how well the painting is going) and the thrill of that mark that makes you run round the studio with your shirt over your head like a deranged footballer, I also revel in the historical baggage and accepting my small own part in that history. I am a part of it and thats what is important.

Most of all I missed creating the simple illusion, and now I cant stop making those simple illusions each day... Painting, for me, has become something like an addiction and I would genuinely feel like a traitor if I had a day off from it. Today will be the 569th consecutive day that I have made a picture.

Obsessive relationship...me?