Tuesday 7 August 2007

52 Weeks, 52 Works


The goal of this project is to complete 52 works in 52 weeks. Why 52? Because there are 52 weeks in a year.

This project is about playing with time. I will take a painting journey throughout the year, capturing the seasons, the changes of the light during a yearly cycle and the passing of time.

Time constraint is part of the exercise. Artists transform constraint into an asset and create their own constraints as part of creating their art. Constraint is the best instrument to focus the mind and foster creativity. Georges Perec , a French writer member of the literary group Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle), wrote in 1969 a novel titled “La Disparition” (translated into English under the title “A Void”) without using the letter “e”. At the time, some reviewers of the book did not even notice.

The idea is to complete the 52 works for this project within one year. I will use various media: oil painting, watercolour and pastel because each medium has its own vocabulary. I don’t intend to finish one work per week but rather to keep to my overall goal: oil paintings take time to paint and come to fruition.

I will use the paintings as a visual journal. In parallel, I will use this blog to put words around the pictures, describe the techniques used and the subject of the paintings. The blog will track progress towards the 52 works goal and give you some insights into my creative process.

The clocks started ticking on 1st August 2007.

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