I made it! The final six paintings of the challenge are finished. For day 25, I came across these shells and thought they were perfect for the prompt. My other idea was to paint another feather. It was nice to do something I’ve never done before though. I seriously lacked energy on day 26. I…
Category: Still Life
September 2020 STRADA Easel Challenge Days 18-24
I’ve been wanting to paint a raw egg for a really long time. I can’t think of a good reason why I haven’t either. Especially now that I’ve discovered how fun they are to paint. The egg is from my chickens so it’s almost half the size of a normal egg and the yolk is…
September 2020 Strada Easel Challenge Days 4-10
Here we are, more than a week into the challenge! This first day was probably a stretch of the prompt, but aside from sitting outside and painting a literal structural, I tried to think of things that were structural. To me, origami always has a very structured quality about it. So I made some buffalo…
September 2020 Strada Easel Challenge Days 1-3
I’m off to an interesting start with this gory skull painting. This painting kicked my butt! I’ve been painting with gouache for most of the year so switching back to oils was definitely a challenge. Note – no skulls where harmed in the making of this painting. I put Saran Wrap down before pouring red…
Framing Some Old Work
After buying a Logan mat cutter at the end of last week, I finally got around to cutting some mats. Last year when I started painting with gouache, I painted on some randomly sized tiny pieces of paper that didn’t fit in any normal frame sizes. I think I painted so small because I wasn’t…
2020 Strada 31-Day Challenge – Complete
There you have it. The January 2020 Strada Challenge is officially over. I don’t really have anything more to say about my experience this go around. I’ll just briefly summarize though: it was rough. I really wanted to present the collection as a whole and try to decide on my favorite painting from the bunch….
2020 Strada 31-Day Challenge – Week 5
Here are the final paintings in the 2020 Strada 31-Day Challenge. It is a huge relief to finally be finished. I honestly thought I would enjoy painting flowers more as the month went on, but I found myself struggling the whole way through. There are some paintings in this collection that I am really proud…
2020 Strada 31-Day Challenge – Week 4
Two-thirds through this challenge and I still don’t like painting flowers. I think I just need to accept that flowers aren’t my thing. This was a good challenge to do though. I was very intimidated by the idea of painting flowers and I’m not anymore. So that’s something. Every January I try to set up…
2020 Strada 31-Day Challenge – Week 3
Here we are, just over half way through the challenge. While I’m still struggling to some degree, I think I’m finally getting the hang of painting flowers. I have to keep reminding myself to slow down and not rush through it, but overall I think I’ve improved. This week feels slightly less horrible than the…
2020 Strada 31-Day Challenge – Week 2
After spending most of last year working with water media, it is genuinely weird to be back to working with oils. I just can’t get over just how oily it is. I’ve never been bothered by the oiliness of an oil painting before, but for whatever reason I’m really aware of it. Transitioning back into…
2020 Strada 31-Day Challenge – Week 1
The Strada 31 day challenge is a challenge hosted by… you guessed it: Strada Easel. The rules are simple: Complete one painting from life every day. If competing for the prize of one of 5 easels, post your completed painting each day to your facebook page with the hashtag #stradaeasel and the day. Official rules…
2019 Year in Review
This year was a mixed bag. It was very positive in terms of my art and getting back into the workforce and very difficult due to some unexpected losses. Overall, I’m grateful this year has finally come to a close. I’m ready for a fresh start in 2020. After nearly a decade of being a…