DAY 9: CHOOSE YOUR PALETTE

Welcome to Day 9 of the Painting Challenge!

It can be liberating to not paint a subject at all and paint abstract. Now, for professional abstract painters there’s a bit of a structure to how they paint but today we’re just simply focusing on picking a palette and just going with it.

Below you see two of my abstract paintings. Each with its own color palette. Today’s challenge is to decide which palette you want to use (so the colors you see) and then paint your own abstract painting. I used mostly a palette knife, and the back of a brush to paint these. I think my hand too. There are pencil lines in the green painting and I slightly used a brush in the pink painting. I used other tools to create a different type of texture.

You can also create abstract by adding more water to your blends and let them ‘pool out’ or run off the page. If you use too much water your canvas paper will get wavy so this is best to do on a stretched canvas.

The Painting Practice

Remember to turn off your phone notifications before you start.

  1. Draw a square outline the size 4×4 or 8×8 inches on your canvas paper.
  2. Choose your color palette to work with and add the colors onto your palette.
  3. Grab some water and your brushes and other tools you want to use today. Maybe use paper to clean off your palette knife (if you use one) instead of wiping chunks of paint off of your towel.
  4. You can use the painting of the same palette as your inspiration, or you can simply allow for inspiration to come through you. Add some darker tones first to ground the piece. Maybe add a larger area of a certain color or shape. Add some lighter colors. And so on until your whole square is full of colors.
  5. Don’t forget to playfully paint for only 20 minutes to keep the focus on meditative joy.
  6. Claim your creativity and honor your journey of showing up for yourself by signing your art work.

SHARE YOUR CREATION:

Take a photo of your finished challenge and share in our Facebook Group. How did this challenge feel? Have you ever painted abstract before? Why did you pick the color palette you did? Let me know when you share your photo.

If you feel called to continue painting past 20 minutes, please do so and let us know when you share it.