Day and Night. 1.6m x 2m canvas.
This painting is the largest I have ever done.
I also learned a few things from painting something at this scale.
I don't paint anything too detailed. My job is stressful enough and I don't want painting to stress me out either. It's supposed to be a hobby, somewhat relaxing and enjoyable. I wanted to paint scenery for a start. And perhaps move on to something else after this. Maybe abstract.
Anyway, I gave it a shot and I'm not exactly sure how to start. My house isn't that big to begin with so I don't know how to paint something this big without the kids noticing it and going on a destroy mission. I did however, had a blank wall in my living room but that's the problem. It's the living room.
I was contemplating on the idea of rolling the painting up every night but doing so would smear the paint and it's just not practical. Awful idea, I don't even know why I bother thinking about it. Or I could start painting from the top and then move towards the bottom in the hopes that the kids got used to the progress that they ended up not bothering about it after awhile. But I need to paint in a certain sequence as I usually have a visual in mind. So I thought just let it be. Just tell the kids not to touch it. Sure enough leaving it exposed till morning and the kids got curious and started touching leaving traces of paint which are not dried on their clothes and on the floor. So I did tell them and yeah, they listened :)
One afternoon I decided to paint and the kids joined in while I paint. So I put another paper beside my work. One of them messed up my painting but it's acrylic and easily painted over. But after a while, they got bored and left my painting alone.
However, I just prefer to paint on my own. I would have a separate painting activity with the kids....on the balcony. Because you know, MESS.
I only paint at night after they sleep because I can concentrate and immerse myself mentally without having being interrupted. Just like designing, I prefer quiet surroundings (not even radio) so I can concentrate and complete the task at hand. But for painting, background sound is fine, just can't have the tiny people in the house wanting me to carry them mid-painting or wanting to go visit the space station to get fruits (their bedroom is the space station)
It took me about 20 hours to paint this, approximately 2 hours a night spreading across a month or so. There was a time I did not paint for a week as the whole house fell sick. Somewhere along the way, I realized that the boundary I set for the canvas is quite small. That's the one thing I've learned.
The last night when I'm almost done, I painted for almost 3 hours and I actually felt sick after that. I realized that I am pushing myself physically to a point that I have no appetite for a week. An irony really because I paint to release stress but I realize even so requires some sort of concentration. I regretted it 😔 I find it hard to stop because I can't wait to see how it evolve. When it's completely dry, I took it down, painted the sides and rolled it up nicely and store it. One thing I've learned is to leave more space at the sides should I want to frame it up.
Took down the complete artwork. Please ignore the tv.
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