Here we are, a week into another STRADA Easel Daily Painting Challenge. If you’re unfamiliar with the challenge, it’s a daily challenge hosted by STRADA Easel to paint from life every day in January. It typically happens twice a year in January and September. I usually do the January challenge and skip the September one…
Tag: alla prima
Prioritizing Art
Now that life has slowed back down to a normal pace, I think I’m going to try to be consistent with this blog again. I made a few attempts earlier this year but was already too overloaded with obligations for it to stick. Now that October is over, things are slowing down and I feel…
Building a Daily Painting Habit
Building a daily painting habit or rebuilding a daily painting habit, in my case, is no easy task. I used to be very good at maintaining a habit of painting every day, but have struggled considerably since the pandemic started. While some people found the extra time on their hands a boon to their art,…
2021 Art Goals
Goals are important when doing any activity. They’re especially important if you intend on accomplishing anything substantial. The hard part is planning out these goals. For me especially, I’ve been struggling with the long term direction I want to ultimately go with my art. I recently met an artist and thought: “That! That is what…
September 2020 Strada Easel Challenge Days 25-30
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…
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 Canyon River Runners Art Show
At the end of March I entered two of my paintings from my Utrecht Color Theory Challenge in at art show hosted by the John Wesley Powell River History Museum in Green River, Utah. Since the museum is about an hour away, it wasn’t until this week that I was finally able to visit and…