#NewYear

A few weeks ago, I decided to participate in the January 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge (aka 30/30 Challenge), sponsored by Leslie Saeta.

My first Challenge was exactly 2 years ago. Some of my friends say I’m a glutton for punishment to do it again. I think I just love to paint, and am looking forward to creating art without distraction and the opportunity to explore new subjects.

I started preparing in December 1st by going through my photo archive (100,000 photos and growing rapidly) looking for a theme. So technically it takes at least 2 days per painting when you include all the prep time.

Of course, I thought about sticking exclusively with some aspect of food. I also considered travel, nature, sea shells, every day objects, and using old postcards (I have my mother’s collection that includes a dirigible!) or famous artists as inspiration.

This process took way more time than expected. I have more unfinished blogs in my head than ever before!

In the end, I didn’t settle on a single theme, as you can see from this table of prints in our family room. I am simply choosing subjects that spark joy. Sound familiar?

It’s a good thing I started early since most of my compositions are horizontal, and I’m short on 5 x 7 rectangular panels (vs. 6 x 6 square). Since my go-to art store, A.I. Friedman in Port Chester, is out of stock on this item, I just ordered 20 Ampersand Primed Smooth cradled wood panels from www.jerrysartarama, and velcro to keep the panels from moving (or falling off!) my large easels.

I also bought a few tubes of acrylic and oil paints.

Today my framer, Joe at Artistic services, cut some thicker, flatter wood strips to raise the panels higher off the easel. Thank you Joe for the quick turnaround! Now I can easily reach the bottom of the panels (to sign, and to photograph without pesky shadows from the “lip” of the easel.)

A brand new memory card just found its way into my camera, along with a fully charged battery.

Of course, no challenge would be complete without some technical glitches. This time it was my main email address, which is working again after spending a few hours deleting several thousand emails, with more to go tomorrow morning. Webmaster Laura is working feverishly on a mobile friendly version of this blog and website that downloads faster.

Tonight I’ll start organizing my studio between painting and watching the Fiesta Bowl (aka Playstation Fiesta Bowl but that’s not rolling off my tongue…). Ohio State is playing Clemson and I’m conflicted about who to root for since the Big Ten Buckeyes are arch rivals of my beloved Michigan Wolverines… So whatever you’re doing tonight, I wish you a….

P.S. Thank you Bonnie and Laura for creating my Bitmoji! Do you think it looks like me?