Last New Work in Progress for 12 x 12 x 12 August 2026

This is my last new work in progress post for my 12 x 12 x 12 August 2026 painting. I have some more work to do, but as I am close to finishing it, my next post about it will be when it's complete.

More New Work in Progress: 12 x 12 x 12 August 2026

After sketching different ideas for next steps in Photoshop last week, I painted the green lines around the large "squares" from the construction fence pattern for my 12 x 12 x 12 August 2026 painting, and then I trimmed it down to 12" square. I could call it finished but I am going to do more painting. It'll be finished sometime before the end of the month.

More New Work in Progress: Dates in a Life Walking Project 2026

 

In July, I retired from my day job, and changed how I document the number of steps I walk each day on my Dates in a Life Walking Project 2026 year-long painting. Starting then, the background color behind all icons for the rest of this year is now Light Ultramarine Blue. Each month, I am pre-painting the days of each month, month by month ahead of time, and each week I collage on the icons for each day walked.

During the brief time I stopped working but was still on the payroll, the background was Light Phthalo Blue. Up until my last day in the office, I was painting Florescent Magenta on the days I was off such as weekends, vacation, personal, and sick days.

In this picture, you can see the August 1st icon is already in place, a little section of July to the left of August, a little of the Light Phthalo Blue in the diagonal upper right of August. and the Florescent Magenta background paint before that.

More Ideas For New Work in Progress: 12 x 12 x 12 August 2026

Yesterday I coated what I had done so far on my monthly 12” square painting, 12 x 12 x 12 August 2026, with 50/50 watered-down matt medium. When wet, the bottom row was very badly puckered and I was considering cutting it off and replacing it with a different piece of fabric. 

While it is a fabric painting, and fabric does pucker, the amount was really bothering me. Thankfully it's reasonably flat today after drying overnight.

While it was drying, I played with a few ideas about next steps in Photoshop. Here are two sketches. I think I'm going to use the idea in the first photo and do more after that.

While I like the idea in the second photo, and might try that in a different piece, it wasn't the right thing to do with this one.

 

More New Work in Progress: 12 x 12 x 12 August 2026

I started working on my monthly 12” square painting, 12 x 12 x 12 August 2026, combining a piece of monoprinted and painted fabric of a construction fence from many years ago and a piece of fabric that has many layers of fabric paint from hand stamping the icons for my yearlong walking painting. I cut and stitched as you can see in these photos, and now I’m paused while I think about my next steps.

New Work in Progress: 12 x 12 x 12 August 2026

I’m considering using some of these fabrics for my monthly 12” square painting, 12 x 12 x 12 August 2026. I think I may collage parts of the bottom left and/or top left fabrics which have paint from the icons I stamped for my walking painting, on to the blue and red stitched piece on the right.

New Work in Progress: Dates in a Life Walking Project 202

This is the month of July for my Dates in a Life Walking Project 2026 painting, a year-long painting documenting the number of steps I walked each day. I have documented my steps in paintings since 2016.

The painting is created with monoprinted textures of a construction fence as the background, handstamped rubber erasers which are collaged on the background grid, as well as handpainting and stitching on stiffened fabric.

I use a system of symbols to represent each thousand steps. Instead of showing exactly how many I walk. The black icons represent up to 9999 steps walked each day, red represents 10,000-19,999 steps and yellow represents 20,000-29,999 steps.

In July I walked over 10,000 steps 11 times and came close to that as represented by the circles (9000 steps +) two times, because of hot weather. 

Under some individual days, there is a painted line of color to represent reasons that may lower or raise the number of steps I walked that day, such as snow, rainy, extreme hot or cold, illness, and vacation.

In July, the red lines are for hot days, and the orange is for when I was on vacation, which this time reduced my walking.

The base monoprinted grid is black. Before I retired from my day job, the Florescent Magenta background paint signified the days (mostly weekends, but also including holidays, vacations days, and sick days) when I was not at work, which usually gave me more time to walk for exercise than the days I am at work.

On June 19, I changed the background color to Light Phthalo Blue to signify the days I technically on “vacation” and still on the payroll at work, but actually retired from my day job and my email access ended. On July 1, the background color changed to Light Ultramarine Blue when I was fully retired. It will remain that color through the end of the year.

The second image shows January through July and plenty of room for the rest of the year.