What Happens When You Work in Series

When you work in series you focus on the creation, and you can develop your painting skills without feeling like you need to reinvent the wheel every time. Working in series can also be helpful to your viewers. They can understand your message. If you are in galleries, they know the importance of a cohesive body of work. What if you made this fabulous painting but it was a fluke, and you couldn’t figure out how to repeat it? What are you trying to say? I recently asked a student what her story was for the piece she was working on, and she said there was no story. At first, I thought she was just dismissing the idea but as we continued to search, she said that there was no story was her story. This is a concept, which can be the basis for a series. The void, the emptiness, the unknown, are ideas for a series.

A series can be a grounding point for you to begin creating. Many times, a person feels intimidated by the blank page or canvas. When you have the groundwork and/or guidelines for a series, you will always have a place to begin. So how do you come up with ideas for a series? Brainstorming or mind mapping is a great place to start. Even word association can be fun. Mind mapping is kind of like visual word association. Begin with a word, idea or tangible thing and write that in the middle of a piece of paper. What is something that you associate with this word? Draw a line and write that word inside another circle. Is there another word or idea that you associate with the original word? You might have 5 or 6 words branching off from the original idea or word. Then do the same thing with the secondary words. You will end up with associations and cross associations. Visual idea association, or mind map, is a great way to begin.

I used to paint circles. I did this for years without really understanding why, but circles kept appearing in my paintings. After a few years I was talking with another artist friend, and he had been doing the same thing. He wasn’t sure why he was painting them either. We began to look at each other’s work and share our stories. During this process we both began to understand why we had been painting the circles. We were telling a story of evolving vision. Our own and a word view that was evolving and changing yet staying the same. The perspective was changing even if the shape wasn’t. After a few more years I stopped painting circles. They still pop up occasionally and I have learned to pay attention to what I am creating repeatedly. I ask the painting to tell me the story.

Here are a few ideas and guidelines to get you started.

* Have all the pieces be in the same format, shape, medium or color scheme.

* Is there a conceptual cohesion? Go back to your idea map.

* Dig deep into the idea. The more you learn, the more ideas you will have.

* The more knowledge will help you understand your subject more.

Themes:

color- bright or neutral, texture, grids, materials like paper or ink, collage, teabags or layers

Guidelines:

same size, use only certain materials, take a part of the first painting to begin the next and so on, each piece can stand alone but together they tell a bigger story.

Concepts:

think deeply about something you are passionate about. Learn as much as can and keep going deeper. The art will deepen too.

Title:

Create a body of work for a show based on the title of the show.

I want to share how successful this process can be. Lorna took part in my year-long online class. She showed up and did the work. Now, years later she sent this to me, and I am so proud of her accomplishments. She took the class, Working in Series and ran with it. She now has a successful exhibition of her work showing in a gallery. You can see how she used the ideas for working in series and expanded on it. Congratulations Lorna! 

And she did it!

Sandra, you were the one who taught me to work on a series.  Thank you so much for your teachings!

All the best

Lorna

Guelph, Ontario, Canada

So, in honor of Lorna and the power of working in series, I am dusting off the online class of Working in series and pulling it from the archives. If you haven’t tried it yet, I invite you to take this course for a great limited time offer of 50% off. This is an online self-directed course that you will have access to forever.

Here is the link, the coupon code is already applied: https://app.ruzuku.com/courses/42103/enroll?coupon_code=GIFTOFSERIES

*In case you've already purchased this...this online workshop was a part of the West, Creative Awakening Course