Justin Clayton answers some questions

"Magnolia"
6" x 6" oil on high quality masonite board
copyright Justin Clayton and reproduced with his permission

Justin Clayton started producing daily paintings in January this year. For me, he stands out from the people producing daily paintings for three reasons:

• he's managed to produce a daily painting almost every day for over 10 months
  
• he has a splendid time lapse video on his website. It shows him painting one of his small daily paintings (of kiwi wedges) from life and from start to finish. I love watching other people paint, to see how they see and to see how they think. It's a fascinating video and is recommended viewing by me.
  
• this weekend, Justin published a very informative set of answers to the questions that he frequently gets asked by those wanting to join the daily painting movement. Click here for a link to the FAQs. I've included the FAQs in my squidoo lens on Art Business - Resources for Artists as a recommended read.
  

Producing "a painting a day" is no mean feat, as evidenced by the number who start but who don't manage to keep it up. (I tried early this year to work smaller with the aim of just producing one a week (see 'Working Smaller') and found it difficult but must have another go!) Those that do maintain a regular output of good quality work on a virtually daily basis have my complete respect. It's been fascinating to see how painting on a daily basis has also influenced the development of Justin's work over the ten months. I think I can see experiments with paint, subject and composition and the resolution of questions being asked. I know I can see good quality work being produced - with the magnolia at the top being an excellent example.

So just who is Justin Clayton? I wrote and asked Justin for permission to use his work and links in this piece and asked him a few questions.......and this is what he told me.

I was born and raised in California and currently live in Los Angeles with my wife Natalie. I studied painting at two schools: California Art Institute and the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Arts. Artists who inspire me include John Sargent, Nicolai Fechin, Andrew Wyeth, Duane Keiser, and Richard Schmid.

I'd describe my work as realistic impressionism. My subject matter is almost anything really: people, trees, fruit although I consider most of my paintings to be portraits. Every person, every fruit, and every thing for that matter is unique in its own way and exudes a personality. This is what I am looking for when choosing a subject.

Before the Daily Paintings, I worked as a video game artist for about 5 years at Microsoft and Electronic Arts. For as long as I can remember I’ve always been interested in two things, art and computers. First and foremost I consider myself an Artist but computer geek is a close second:). So when I’m not painting I’m usually doing something on the computer. For the past couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to focus on painting, which is what I really enjoy.

I don’t have a really good answer for why I paint. I can spend a whole day painting and when I’m finished I’ll read an art book or research art materials online for few hours. I guess it’s a passion when I think about painting even after a long day of painting.

Justin doesn't have a comments function on his blog but if you'd like to leave any comments below this post I know he'll be coming by to read them.

Links:

• "Justins Paintings" - Justin Clayton's website
• "Daily Paintings" - the blog Justin uses to list his daily paintings (with links to auctions)
• Justin Clayton - the video
• Justin Clayton - FAQs about daily painting
• The Art Business - Resources for Artists
  

Technorati tags: art , daily painter , daily painting , daily paintings , painting,, painting a day