1000 days project

"We are what we repeatedly do"

Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers (1926)

The 1000 day project is my attempt to steer myself consciously towards the things that are most important to me.

Every day for 1000 days I will work towards my goals in a structured way. I will be posting daily updates on this website.

The 1000 day project runs from 26th December 2015 to the 21st September 2018, which is my 30th birthday.

In the past I have successfully completed two 100 day projects (100 portraits in 2010 and 100 blogs in 2011). In 2012 I spent 1000 hours drawing and painting.

Day 0096


Breakfast in Napoli, lunch in Rome, dinner in Cambridge. Late night silverpoint after Van Eyck. Enjoyed reading most of Tolstoy's What is Art? whilst travelling. A great deal to reflect on. Listening to Mary Beard's Pompeii - The life of a Roman town whilst drawing.

Day 0095


Pompeii. So many lives. People on train, casts of dead bodies, friends. Shared experience the only connection, everything else inscrutable, fabricated, interpreted, filtered.

Day 0094


Napoli. Archeological museum and colossal Hercules. Paintings from Pompeii. Beautiful materials on display, porphyry and marble, grey marble, variegated marble. Mosaics.

Day 0093


Via Appia Antica. No looking at art, no grand thoughts, pure holiday

Day 0092


Palazzo Doria Pamphilj. Privately owned collection of master artists. Raphael, Bruegel, Filippo Lippi, Parmigianino, Titian, Velázquez. Devalues when there is so much in a single family's hands. Hedonic treadmill. Nothing is enough.

Day 0091


Borghese gallery. Bernini, Cannova, Raphael, Botticelli. A silverpoint by the Master of the Pala Sforzesca, which I have started a copy of tonight. Feeling spoilt by such an abundance of high quality art. Love recognising artists by their style, remembering their other works in other museums. Hermaphroditus at the Louvre. Yesterday an Old fisherman sculpture in the Vatican, also in the Louvre. Francesco Francia's St Francis from the Met made an appearance at the Borghese today. Perugino's squared oval heads. Raphael's women seen from behind looking into the picture.

Day 0090


Vatican museums and St Peter's. Canova, Raphael, Michelangelo.

Day 0089


  • Parmigianino and Correggio exhibition
  • Chronological, excellent to see bad early work. There is hope!
  • Reproductions are so far from the originals

Day 0088


Start of a sketch of a sculpture of St Matthew from Saint Giovanni in Laterano.

Day 0087


Travelled from Suffolk to Rome. No time to do a proper drawing. Silverpoint copy late at night, many elementary errors.
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