As an artist in residence, one is awarded with an amazing space to work, a supportive artist’s community and time!! It is such a gift to have the time to put in the hours needed to produce new work more quickly (since you aren’t working and attending to other life needs as you normally would). However, working long hours can also be a bit rough on the body if you are an artist with an intense process like mine. I was pretty amazed with how much I got done this second week at Jentel. However, I did have to deal with a good bit of pain (a joyful sort of pain—haha) in the process. My back and wrist ached and I can’t believe that I actually rubbed the side of my painting hand raw with the texture of the linen and gesso. I finally had to purchase a wrist guard the other day and it has been a huge help. Take a look at my process a bit here:
A lot of people have asked me in the past just how long it takes me to make a painting, and so I have begun logging my painting hours while in residence here… 4 hours of photo research, 12 hours of digital sketch development, 1 hour of abstract wash, and 60 hours of underpainting work thus far on this six foot square painting! If you divide that amongst the 12 days or so of work that I have done here, that amounts to about 6.5 hours daily. Pretty good! However, there are obviously days when I do more versus less. When I am teaching full time, this amount certainly gets spread out to when I can squeeze them in along with everything else I do, so you know… Artist residencies are amazing! Thank you, Jentel Arts!