Daily drawings inspire local creative

WHAT daily ritual do you perform to keep yourself happy, fulfilled and engaged?

Bendigo artist Frankie O is planning to embark on her One Drawing a Day project next year for the third time.

Started in 2016 and relaunched again in 2018, the project sees her complete one piece of work every day for a year in an effort to keep regularly creating.

Following an inspiring trip to Rome to complete an art course while on long service leave from her teaching job, she set the ambitious goal that has seen her break a years-long creative block.

“When I came home I said ‘right, that’s it. I’ve just been reinspired, I’ve got to get back into this no matter how busy I am’,” she said.

“I made a space on the table at my house and started drawing. I started posting them online for some reason, I don’t even know why. I just wanted to share what I was doing.

“From there I started getting people giving me feedback and I hadn’t had feedback in years because I wasn’t creating anything, and it was lovely to connect with people.”

Her Facebook page One Drawing a Day by Frankie O has since amassed over 1000 followers, which the artist continues to post to even while the project is on pause.

Those followers keep her accountable during the daily process, and she said each day brought about an opportunity to create something new.

“Because I was doing one drawing a day for a year, that’s 365 chances to try new things or to flesh out things,” Frankie O said.

For her next instalment of the project, she wants to take her audience somewhere new which could include works inspired by her hometown, Ouyen, or something a little more local.

“Some of the things that I’ve been floating around is to do 365 images of Bendigo, that would be just fabulous,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do a big body of work on Bendigo.”

In the meantime, Frankie O encouraged people to start and support similar challenges that could benefit people in uncertain times.

“I think it’s so important to connect and encourage people in times like this because it’s unknown times and we’re all trying to express and deal with things differently,” she said.

“It can be a really good thing for people, whether they’re artistic or not, to pick up something and do something every single day. It’s amazing where it will take you.”