Day #219 Yoghurt Raisins

These are actually yoghurt raisins although, I am concerned they look like popcorn. But, I suppose yoghurt raisins do look a bit like popcorn...

Day #218

 The Tour de France starts today so here is a connector pipe for pumping up your bicycle wheels. And it's yellow! Allez Froome!

Day #217 Bumble Bee

I woke up at 4:27 this morning wondering what the buzzing noise was. It was this bee lying next to me on my pillow. So, I calmly woke up, found my spectacles, found Monsieur Bee and removed him to the outside world. Phew.

Day #216 Pea

Yep, you guessed it, the first pea of the year! Mmm mmm.

Day #215 Swiss Cow Bell

A random one tonight, we aren't really sure why we have a Swiss cow bell, but we do. And now I have paintied it. I also note that Swiss tennis player Roger Federer is in a tight match at Wimbledon, which I will now turn my attention to.

Day #214 Plant label

As Debbie is without a right hand (not 'actually' without it, its just healing after carpal tunnel surgery) I am chief plant label writer. I found 'Delasperma' to be childishly humorous when I wrote this one out and here it is immortalised in my painting.

Day #213 Strawberry

Not just any strawberry, oh no, this is the very first strawberry of the year from my carefully tended little patch. It tasted a little bit sharp so, some more sun please and you black birds stay away (I promise that I didn't destroy their nest just so my strawberries would be safe) <- see yesterday's post.

Day #212 Blackbird Egg

I feel terrible, I had to take down a clematis that is growing on next doors house. It has also finished flowering and it is the right time to do it. But sadly it is also the right time for blackbirds to do their thing and I have sadly, and inadvertently, destroyed a poor blackbirds nest and it had a clutch of eggs in it :( hopefully it is early enough for them to find somewhere else to raise another batch. They are a lovely colour though.

Day #211 Stone Blue Tit

Following up yesterday's theme of 'things I've found in the garden'. Today I bring you this stone 'look' blue tit. There are two more that might appear....

Day #210 Old Glass Bottle

I love the things you dig up in the garden this is the only bottle stopper we have found so far! The oddest find was a collection of oyster shells quite deep down and grouped together. I assumed it was randy builders!

Paint technique alert! I will apply a few glazes over this bottle stopper to help make the glass shine and glint.

Day #209 Garden String

I have been stringing up stuff in the garden, don't worry just cucumbers and the like. I can't wait to see what could hang between these two chopsticks.

Day #208 Burnt Sienna paint

So, this is where I put 'squeezes' of things!

Day #207 Violin tuning peg

Yesterday and today have been slightly marred by a migraine that has decided to live in my head for a bit. Thankfully it isn't of the  'lie down in a dark room until it fades' type. But is the sort that leaves me feeling like a Neanderthal with an electrical pulse going through my brain from the neck upwards. I was  wondering what the worst noise would be in that state, an out of tune violin came pretty high up the list. So, I painted a violin tuning peg!

Day #206 Plaster

Debbie had her dressing changed today, post carpal tunnel surgery. I also changed my 'dressing' after slicing the side of my hand on the weekend, here is the plaster I removed. I should point out that i am not normally in the habit of sticking my used plasters on the wall. Only for artistic purposes.

Day #205 Snail

I both love and hate these little buggers! Nice because they are stripey and not nice because they eat my baby veg plants grrrr.

Day #204 Cotswold Stone

I gave a talk to the Cotswold Art Club this afternoon, they do a great cup of tea at half time! I was talking about and demonstrating my digital paintings, I even joked that I would forget to paint today because I made a digital landscape and felt like it was last years project. and i very nearly actually forgot to paint today's instalment. Luckily I thought it would be a great idea to paint a piece of cotswold stone to link in with the cotswold art club! And stones are relatively quick to paint ;).

Day #203 Chive Flower

The chives look amazing this year. End of statement.

Day #202 Melon slice

It must be summer, we have melon!

Day #201 Bird Skull

Every artist should have at least one skull! Tis one was found in our old garden, I think it was a blackbird.

Day #200 Incense

These are great for masking nasty odours when you are clearing out unpleasantness from the back of the fridge! Someone remind me to paint the smoke in when I have finished everything else! Thanks.

Day #199 File

I knew I had some little files, don't you hate it when you find something just after you don't need it...

Day #198 Celery

We went shopping today, stocking up on exotic things like celery and Bombay mix. I painted the celery.

Day #197 Carrot

First carrot crop of the year, whoop!

Day #196 Wooden Plectrum

As plectrum, or plectra (either is correct), are found all over our house I think I will also scatter them all over this picture. This particular one not only echoes the shape of the chicken but it is wooden. I will check what type of wood when I find the information sheet, I think it is mahogany. But they sound lovely on my acoustic guitars as well as the banjo. You can ever have too many plectra!

Day #195 Tiny Grapes

It's very exciting having so many tiny bunches of grapes on the grapevine this year we have had to remove loads. Naturally have hung these over this tiny tree. I hope we get a good bunch for me to paint later on...watch this space!

Day #194 Apple Stalk and Leaf

I ate an apple, it had a leaf on it. that doesn't happen very often anymore does it?

Day #193 Priming Brush

I have been asked a lot since I began this daily painting project how I get the inspiration for each day. This has made me wonder what inspiration is. I have tried to use my daily life as a starting point for the subject matter in 'Dan Young, Daily' but finding a 'thing' to paint is not the only element of inspiration. The spark that makes me want to paint something is way more difficult to define. It is a feeling and an urge that makes me need to record something in visual form, very much the way a traditional diarist might be compelled to record their days events. I will be honest it doesn't always happen smoothly and sometimes tapping into a tiny bit of inspiration every day can be like squeezing the last bit of toothpaste from it's tube. Other times inspiration falls out of my paintbrush like a tap! 

When 'toothpaste squeezing' I find myself wandering around the house/garden/studio/local park or anywhere looking for inspiration (whatever that may be!).  It doesnt always work! 

 

I then turn to the internet (that great solver and creator of modern day problems) but I find it can be a huge sprawling mass of images and ideas (1654 images on this blog alone!) you will find things that were made yesterday alongside things made 100's or 1000's years ago. I have recently discovered, as someone who revels in images, that Pinterest is an amazing way of sifting through and collecting inspirational pictures and tying them together in a way that makes sense to me. I use it as a place for recording those ideas and imagery that might feed back in to my mind at a later time, or simply somewhere to save a cool picture of something cool that I think is cool. 

I made a board I call 'Painterly Painterliness' to save images of paintings and painters that get my painty juices flowing have a look here. I find it a great place to start if I find myself 'squeezing toothpaste' or if I want to have a look at paintings and painters I really enjoy and have been, or will be, influenced by.

Todays painting is this hanging priming brush, precariously hooked on the old guitar string, one of the key influences and inspirations for this years painting is the genre of Dutch still lives. I find some of the many and varied inventive ways of presenting an object really interesting and hanging things from other things seems like a great way of getting it all in there.

 



In the spirit of Pinterest's #pinitforward campaign it is my honour to introduce coldknees to you all, a very different blogger but equally excited by colour by the looks of it! Over to you tomorrow Rachel.

 

 



Day #192 Putty Rubber

I love using putty rubbers, soft malleable erasers especially good with charcoal. Bit weird to paint though, just a grey lump! This is my favourite shape, with a point for a detail but a rounded areas for rubbing out larger bits of drawing.

Day #191 nut

Damn, damn, damn I missed my midnight deadline....that's twice in one week. The daily painting gods will strip me of something!.... Anyway here is my finished guitar nut, made from the blank just in front of it. Damn I can't believe have forgotten to post twice, I painted at the right time on both occasions.

Day #190 Knife

One of my granddads knives to be exact, not sure if this one has a special use but it is a lovely little thing and super sharp now I have sharpened it up. I have a lovely wooden chest full of my granddads old tools, surprised I haven't raided it before now for painting purposes.....