Author: Doug Rutherford

It’s the first day of Spring.

Time flies.

I cannot grasp that a second year of the Painting a Day challenge has passed, and I painted a painting for each day, along with 3 bonus paintings.

I certainly missed a few days. I had two trips outside for medical appointments and didn’t paint the 4 days I was out. However, I also had a residency where I did quite a few paintings. The end result is yet another year of paintings.

With the end of Year 1, I thought I might paint a few different topics. I did paint a few Cape Breton pictures, as well as two Irish scenes.

So, now on to another year. Again, I’m not sure if I will keep going, since I do occasionally think that I am doing a painting for the sake of painting rather than doing a specific scene because I really want to. I do need to plan a few painting trips and I have applied for two residencies so, like in everything else, we’ll see.

There’s a few things to note.

First, I am still knee deep in the painting a day challenge. The second year has about 2 more weeks left.

Painting sales did slow down a bit, although they weren’t wild and woolly last February, either. However, I did sell three in the last two weeks so things may be picking up a bit.

I have a showing coming up in October. One of the shops in town will be exhibiting some of my paintings. More news on that later.

And, of course, there are some more paintings to show.

I put the last post up in a hurry, so here are a few more of my paintings from the residency.

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I started the painting a day thing last March. As I mentioned previously, I wondered how long this would continue. Yesterday marked another milestone with painting of the day number 500.

I spent some time trying to pick what I would do for number 500. If nothing else, I wanted something I would like a lot more than the way number 300 turned out…

I was reminded of the first watercolour painting I did, which was a painting of a solstice sunset from Fox Lake campground in 2015. It turned out quite well for a first ever attempt, good enough that my grandson claimed it immediately. (I suggested he put it on his fridge…)

Therefore, having just come back from a camping trip to Fox Lake recently, I figured that I’d do another sunset from Fox Lake, So, here it is.

I have been having fun doing this on a daily basis, but it may be time to taper off a bit. If for nothing else, I am getting ready for a residency next week in Tagish and doing a workshop on Saturday, August 7th as part of the Yukon Fresh Artists in Residence Exchange. I’m looking forward to it, although I must admit that, after 30-odd years of teaching, it’s the first time teaching this subject and there may be a small case of nerves involved…

I haven’t posted recently, so I figured I would throw a few recent paintings up. For statistics sake, the Picture of the Day is up to number 461.

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I started the painting a day thing on March 21st last year as a thing to do for the COVID lock down. It was something to do to keep me busy and give me a bit of something to focus on.

I wondered how long I could keep at it, considering I really only started painting a few months before.

There were a number of days I didn’t get one done. For example, there was a day when I started one, and gave up on it. At that point of the day, with an abscessed tooth and a bit of codeine, I wasn’t getting anything done.

I did put some effort into making up the days I missed, particularly in the last few days. And, this morning, I did the 365th painting to mark one year of a painting a day.

Given it is a bit of a milestone, I wondered what to paint. I decided this morning to consider how this started. My first painting of the day was three of the poplars in my yard. I figured I’d go with the theme and paint some of the other poplars. So here is the one year anniversary painting of the day.

Strangely, I feel a little bit sad about a year of this. It isn’t the end, since I am not going to quit painting, or even painting every day as it comes to it. And, we all knew this was going to last some time.

I do think I’m going to expand my repertoire a bit, since I was looking at an album of Cape Breton pictures. So, be prepared for a little different scenery (not like the Yukon has a shortage of scenery). I’m already planning a few painting trips for the summer.

So, on to year 2…

Now that the light at the end of the tunnel may not be a train, it’s nice to look back and see some of the ways I’ve tried to adapt to the COVID-era lifestyle.

One way of dealing with it, of course, would be having all this time to get more writing done. I have three plays I’ve been trying to edit,and truthfully, I really haven’t done that much. I did do some writing during the Nakai Theatre 24 Hour Playwriting Challenge in November. I did a bit more to put together two residency applications. However, I didn’t get either of those and haven’t spent more than n hour or two above that.

I have always been one of those people who said that, if I had more time, my house would be cleaner. I have discovered that having more time doesn’t help. It’s awful to be retired and still in need of a housekeeper…

Strangely, I could have spent far more time playing music. However, this has been something of the same as house cleaning. For some reason, it’s rather hard to get up the ambition to go downstairs and play as often as I would wish.

So, how have I filled my time? Sadly, I have really spent far too much time sitting in front of the television (or as my father referred to it, the one-eyed monster that sits in your living room and sucks your brain out.) If you need proof, taking a tape measure to my waist would work.

I have still stuck to my Painting of the Day schedule, or at least, as much as possible. I have done 327 of them to this point, and if I do stick with it until March 20th, there will only be 12 days that I’ve missed in the first year. I have enjoyed the hour or so a day that I put towards each, and am willing to admit that I have improved.

I will admit, however, that my painting recently has often involved doing “a painting for a painting’s sake.” I think that, after I hit the one year point, I may back off a bit and work on more selective pieces, and larger pieces. Storing 5×7 paintings, I will also admit, is a lot easier that 11×14 ones. Presently, I have been looking forward a few painting trips this summer and need to pin some of those down soon.

March 21 will mark the first year since I started the painting a day, and it does offer a point to consider. By then, I will be past the 7-14 days after my second vaccine shot to build full immunity and our lives here won’t be as restricted as they were. I am really looking forward to that. On March 15th, I am hoping to go to the bar and actually have a beer, flaunting the most risky situation for catching COVID. To prove my true bravery, I’m going to book a tooth cleaning for about the same time.

So, I’ll end this with a few paintings, and I’ll let you know how that beer tasted in a few weeks.