January 2019

Strada Easel Challenge, Day 7

Artwork, daily painting, January 2019, Plein Air
1/7/19, Red Fence, 4″x6″ oil on panel

With my daughter back to school, I was going to attempt some plein air. But the snow is mushy, so I am going to give it a couple more days. This is part of my backyard fence, with receding snow and the mud that is now our backyard.

Strada Easel Challenge Day 1

daily painting, January 2019
1/1/19 Orang Malu, 4″x6″ Oil on panel

Today is the first day of the Strada Easel Challenge. Create a painting, from life, daily, for the month of January. Finish the Challenge and you are entered into a drawing to win a Strada Easel. This is a twice yearly event.

The subject of my painting is a Balinese sculpture called an “Orang Malu” which translates to Shamed Man. I have also heard it called a Weeping Buddha. When I asked one of the vendors what the meaning was he was quite direct – “Who cares? People keep buying them, so we keep making them”. Still, pretty cool sculpture.

Since my daughter hasn’t started back to school yet, it will be still lifes until next week. Then, hopefully, I can get some (very, very cold) Plein Air painting done.

Projects & Goals for 2019

January 2019

Strada Easel Challenge Artwork – 2018

2018 was a year of change. We moved from Western Washington to Gallup, New Mexico in May. My husband settled into his job with the Navajo Nation. I balanced keeping my 4 year old occupied while trying to navigate a new town, registering her for school, and trying to find an art community for myself. I teamed up with an amazing animal sanctuary and made some very inspiring paintings and wonderful connections.

A heartfelt thank you to all that have supported, commented and bought my artwork this year. Your support means so very much to me. I look forward to continuing sharing my work and adventures with you.

My now 5 year old (December B-day) will be headed to a different school in January, five days a week with some interesting after school programs. I hope she will thrive there. The new schedule will give me more time in my home studio, as well as help me plan for some teaching opportunities in the new year.

Lots of projects in the works for next year, the Year of the Pig. I will be printing my traditional Lunar New Year Linocuts for family, friends and clients. I plan a number of different small series, one of which will grace my 2020 (wow, 2020!) calendar, I hope. In honor of the Chinese New Year, I want to create 52 pig themed paintings. January brings the latest Strada Easel Challenge, so I am hoping to keep to schedule and paint, from life, every day of January. Of course, Inktober is on my mind too, but I have a while to prep for that. Something in April too, but again, I’ll revisit that closer to March.

Did I mention I have lists? Lists of what I want to do. More lists than time.

I have been very involved with a project that I proposed to Gallup Arts, a local non profit that has been quite active in Gallup. It’s a spin off of the 30/30/30 concept I brought to Moscow, ID – this time, only 15 (5x7s) in 30 days. We did get the panels two weeks early, but since it coincided with the holidays, we figured it wouldn’t hurt. I learned how to set up a group page on FB. We have 28 artists in this group – should be about 420 artworks on display. That goes up early February.

A very basic goal is to keep painting, every day. It’s a challenge when my little girl is home for the break, and I would love to paint later into the night, but my husband gets up very, very early. If I can do plein air, possibly once a week, even better. It’s pretty cold here right now, though, so I have to make sure to dress appropriately.

Another goal is to start exercising more. I have a *small* window of time in the morning that I could use, before my little one wakes up. I will give it a try tomorrow – Christmas Eve is a great day to start, right?

And the studio is actually clean. lol for a hot minute.