Thoughts on the 30/30 Challenge

I completed twenty-two 5x7 paintings for the Challenge. The last week in January was just too busy at our house for painting, except for my class day on Tuesday. I did paint all day with my student, Greg. We are working together on a long, involved still life and have one more week of touch ups before calling our paintings finished. But there was no extra time for my Challenge paintings.

When I look back over the past month, I’m very glad that I participated. I could definitely see an improvement in my “Alla Prima” techniques. 

Every new painting presents its own set of problems and I found that after facing these problems every day, knowing that I had a limited time to finish (my self-imposed 2 hours) and that I had publicly stated that I was doing this challenge and needed to post a finished painting each day – my focus became sharper and within a few days, I instinctively knew how each subject needed to be handled. The painting process became easier and I felt that my paintings were improving. I also could feel a new sense of energy in my studio.

I found the most difficult and time-consuming part was not the painting, but the posting process. After taking the photos and loading them into my computer, I had to resize and sort them for different formats. Ebay requires a larger size picture than my website and blog, etc. I then posted them on my website, Facebook, Pinterest, Ebay, Leslie Saeta’s Blog and my own blog. I also had to write the texts for each posting and make sure all the links were correct. I have the process streamlined now, but it still takes about an hour each evening.

The upside to all this posting is that I have met many new friends and enjoyed being a part of a larger artist community. The increased traffic has also brought more visitors to my sites and my sales have increased.

Would I do it again? Yes, but I would limit myself to 4-5 paintings a week. It was very hard to find time for my other chores and I’m sorry to say that my housework suffered the most. I will have to remedy that this weekend.

Thank you for visiting with me.
Celene