Italian Coastline

Good evening!  It's still Monday (by a hair), so I'm successfully keeping on with my challenge of posting every Monday and Friday for the next month.  I started a new painting last week, and I thought I'd share the progress!  Above is one of the first times I stepped back from the picture, and below is after filling in the mountains and starting the structure.  The scene is an Italian coastline (as you can tell by tel by the blue block in the lower left hand corner - that's water!), and I am taking pictures continuously through the process so I can continue to share my progress.  More to come!

Friday Already?!

Happy Friday!  Per my new challenge, I'm blogging today in an attempt to write on both Mondays and Fridays.  This past Monday I wondered what I'd accomplish by Friday, and to be honest, this week wasn't the best.  I had a painting that I started, and totally messed up.  As in totally, completely messed up.  It was the ballerina I had talked about starting on Monday, and not only was it just not right from a perspective perspective, but it wasn't even captivating.  You know what?  It happens sometimes.

Productivity wise, I delivered an embellished giclee this week that I framed in a super cool dark wood frame.  Frame delivery day is always like Christmas, especially when buying brand new frames.  That was the case this week and I was really excited about what I got!  

Well sadly, I don't have a lot more to say so far.  I'm back at the easel this afternoon, so hope to have something more for you Monday!

Have a GREAT weekend!!!!!!!

New Challenge...

This past week, I went to the beach with my family.  It's always nice to get away from the hustle and bustle and have nothing on my to do list except for walk the beach every day.  Going to the beach also helps me to clear my mind, and assess where I am on a lot of levels.  While I feel rejuvenated and can't wait to tackle some new things (especially art-wise), I realized that my blog has been lacking a lot of late.  My once a week Monday post has slowly devolved into posting more sporadically, which I don't like.  Somehow, the week sneaks up on me and Monday comes and goes.

So I've decided to challenge myself.  For a month (since that's the amount of time it takes to create a habit and not too much pressure), I'm going to post every Monday and Friday.  Just like any good product, it takes time to create good art, so subject matter can be tough sometimes to drum up.  So sometimes I'll write about what I've accomplished, and sometimes I'll write about what I didn't accomplish, and sometimes I'll just blog about myself so you can get to know me better.  But the point is, the goal is to blog.

So with that, welcome to the first day of the challenge!  As I mentioned before, I went to the beach last week with my family.  It was particularly special since this was the first year that baby girl came along (not in my belly).  She loved the beach and the pool, and had some of the best naps of her life (she was a sleepy bear after all the fun we'd have everyday).  Overall it was really relaxing and while I wish I could have spent another week there, it's fun to be home and back at the easel!

Art-wise, this week I'm going to start a new ballerina in palette knife, do some framing, and see what else comes up.  Stay tuned for Friday!