Abstract landscape painting with a sketchbook spread showing the colour palette

studio note 02

Doing #the100dayproject

last updated: March 2022

Early in 2021, in the third lockdown, I couldn´t go to the studio and was in charge of our three young children over two months. To stay connected to my practice in some way I participated in #the100dayproject for the first time between January 31st and May 10th. In this initial project I explored space and mark on a daily basis in a dedicated sketchbook. If you like to have a look, click here to hop over to my instagram and the highlight #100daysofspaceandmark.

During the project new questions arose and I decided to continue investigating after it ended but with a new focus for the next 100 days. This time I decided to take it slower because the summer holidays would start only a few weeks later and the project was more ambitious. It's still a 100-day-project but spread over a year.

In #100daysofborrowedcolour I explore the colour palettes of artists I admire through 3-4 of their artworks. I started with artists of the past while I reached out to contemporary creators to ask for their permission to use some of their work shared on instagram to extract the colour palette digitally and on paper and then study them in form of small abstract landscapes.

And now a few more details about the process:

For the first set I selected my favourite painting by Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1946), a Scandinavian painter whose work I had the pleasure to observe again and again during a retrospective dedicated to her work in the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 2007.
After choosing the artist and the first artwork I import the digital file into Procreate on the iPad. I then extract the palette digitally and print both together in postcard size. This goes into my sketchbook where I select the colours (pencil, pastel, marker, tape etc.) or mix them in gouache, watercolour or acrylic paint.

In the beginning it was all about the colour - and only the colour. But over the past 10 months the project has developed. I have discovered my interest for the material used in the original artwork which led to using watercolour while I studied the work of August Macke and Paul Klee or Collage in my most recent set inspired by the work of Elly Dijkshoorn. Gesture and Mark are also playing an important role now.

If you have a look there is something striking in these early pieces: they are very minimal, bold and expressive and it's easy to relate them to Schjerfbeck's self portrait but it's also very clear that I inadvertently used the white of the paper which is not part of the reference work. In later studies I have challenged myself to pay attention to proportion (how much of each colour is there - see how little black I used in comparison to the photo?) and to context. After all it is important where a colour appears in relation to its neighbouring colours. A red next to a purple has a completely different effect than next to a green, right?

I expected to learn a lot about the interaction of colour through this project and I'm not at all disappointed with what I have discovered so far. I love vibrant colours, fluorescent hues make my heart sing, but they definitely need the neutrals to really pop. Right now I'm in the middle of exploring (and falling in love) with all those beautiful neutrals which often happen in one's palette and only need to be picked up.

What I didn't expect at all and for what I'm very thankful were the inspiring relationships to some of the artist I contacted for the project and their generosity in not only sharing their work but often insights into their process and some lovely conversations. Don't be shy - reach out! 


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