As part of #craftember I chose to do my own personal postcard painting challenge. Every day throughout September I set aside 20 minutes to sit down and paint. Using my beloved Acryla Gouache and A6 postcard sized 350gsm watercolour paper I sat down each day and painted. There were no rules or colour palettes and each design was an exercise to see what I could create in the time frame I'd set myself.
Using Acryla Gouache was fantastic as the drying time was so quick. By the time I'd painted the background layer and set it aside, I had just enough time to mix my colour palette before it had dried. There was no waiting around for paint to dry. Due to the opacity of Acryla Gouche, I didn't need to go back over previous elements to touch up any translucent spots which also saved precious minutes.
My intention wasn't to just create florals for this project, but my brain seems to be full of them! Having an unintentional theme helped as it saved me time trying to decide what I wanted to paint next. Inspiration for colours often came from the previous day's palette or elements of other projects I am currently working on. This challenge pushed my creativity which I found fun. Having a set time frame meant I had to create and make marks on the paper, so procrastination wasn't an option.
I really enjoyed participating in this challenge. I found myself genuinely looking forward to the 20 minutes each day when I knew I would be painting. While many of the designs I created were not pretty or in keeping with my aesthetic, I found something very cathartic about just sitting and creating without consequence. My intention wasn't to create something 'Instagram worthy,' but to enjoy the peace and mindfulness which comes with painting. This led to an amazing feeling of freedom as I wasn't analysing what I was creating as I was doing it, but just creating marks. If I hated the colour or the marks weren't as perfect as I wanted, it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the creation which is what Craftember is all about!
I’d love to see everyone else's creations for #craftember. Please tag me in any photos on Facebook and Instagram using #CassandraConnolly or @cass_connolly. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!
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