"30 -30" Event - Thirty Pastel Paintings in 30 Minutes

The color palette:
My color sense tends to be rather bold and saturated, so I wanted to explore a more subdued palette. I pre-selected a range of values in 7-8 colors.

The excercise of painting 30 paintings in 30 minutes really gets the creative juices flowing, and forces you to focus on the essentials. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the event, I found myself getting quite irritated at that minute going by so quickly. Just as I was getting into the flow of each painting, "Ding!" the minute would be up. It would be easier if it was just charcoal, but I'm a color addict. The entire excercise, including a few seconds between each to put the old one away and prepare for the new one, took about 45 minutes or so. Preparation and clean up added a few more hours.

The advanced planning helped. I had gathered papers in several different colors and textures, and pre-selected a palette of largly compatible soft pastels from which I only occasionally strayed. Also, I already had in mind what I wanted to explore -- geometric shapes (squares, rectangles, stripes, and frames). I feel as if I've barely scratched the surface of possibilities. I am so pleased with the experience and the production that I intend to repeat the process, maybe a 60-60, or one with 90 seconds each, or maybe even two whole minutes!

All 30 one-minute paintings

The first five minutes

Five more minutes.