100 Days of Creating Art
A few weeks ago, my friend invited me to participate in #the100dayproject, which is an art project that takes place online and open to anyone who wants to commit to creating artwork every day for 100 days. The project community launched 7 years ago, and it kicks off each spring (this year it started on April 7th). There are no real rules about what your project can or can't be—you make up your own rules!—and you can create in whatever medium you'd like. You simply make something and share it online, and it can either be a finished art piece or a work-in-progress check-in. Again, no rules!
After my friend told me about it, I was eager to join in, but I had no clue what to do—especially because I had only a few days before the kick-off. I had too many ideas at first. She was going to do a collage each day, and I thought I could do the same, but I quickly realized I didn't have the art supplies to do that. (And the places I would normally go to for supplies are all closed right now.) But then it came to me!
I've been very focused on growing my skills as a photographer, so I decided to focus on photography for 100 days and push myself to use light in interesting ways. I've always been fascinated by chiaroscuro technique, and I love Old Masters. But I'm not a painter, so I thought that it could be cool to photograph a still life in a style inspired by Old Masters paintings. So that's what I'm doing for these 100 days!
I started on April 7, along with the rest of the world, and I'm now two weeks into the project. In the past 14 days, I've learned so much about light and shadow and long exposures and the challenges of chasing natural light. (As I type this, there is virtually no light coming in through my windows because it's storming heavily outside. Yikes.) I've also learned that creating the actual still life is hard, especially if you have nothing to use for the "set" design. I'm a minimalist, so I don't have many things to use for building my still life sets. I've used the same couple of artificial eucalyptus branches in almost every photo from the past two weeks, and I have one scarf that I use as a surface covering. I really could use more props. 😬
Below are a few of the still life images I've created since starting #the100dayproject earlier this month. I'm also posting these photographs to my portfolio. You can view them here: https://liaballentine.myportfolio.com/the100dayproject. And, of course, you can keep up with the daily project postings on my Instagram: @liaballentine.
If you're part of #the100dayproject, give me a shout in the comments or on Instagram, and let me know what you're working on!
