I finished my last set of 30 Paintings – A Parliament of Owls, last month. Right now, I’m finishing off a couple commissions before launching into the next couple projects. If I am able to follow through on my projects, I will have painted around 100 small paintings (6×6 or smaller) this year. Not including commissions.

There are over 200 varieties of owls. I painted 30 6″x6″ oil paintings of a handful of owl species. This time, I decided to handpaint the backgrounds – something I haven’t done in a while, because, though I LOVE pattern, I DON’T love painting pattern. I really enjoyed combining the colors and patterns with the owls, and I think I accomplished what I wanted to do – create works that weren’t just studies of owls. I am quite pleased with the results.

I have been a part of a couple types of “Art Challenges” over the past decade, usually involving a finite amount of time (30 days, 15 days) to create x number of artworks. I found in the more recent challenges, I was very interested in developing Series/Bodies of work, rather than a smorgasborg of different images. Painting in series helps me develop ideas, and help me power through the days when I really don’t want to go into the studio.

If you are interested making one of these paintings yours, please email me. $100 each. (Danaaldisstudio@gmail.com) All paintings are unframed, unless requested.

When do I find the time? Well, I guess I just have had to buckle down and paint when I find the time. I am a new-ish mom – Penelope is three and a half now. We are able to afford daycare, so she goes for about 6.5 hours, four days a week. The commute, though, is a doozie – approx 45 min each way. So I lose at least an hour and a half driving. And since my husband works 4/10h days, I am usually in charge of dinner, groceries, household errands. So realistically, IF I do get into the studio, it’s around 3-4 hours of painting time. But, if I get my household things done efficiently, it can be up to 5 1/2 hours.

I used to paint at night for a couple hours but Penelope has been going through a transition phase, waking up around 2am or so and coming into our room. During the week I am the one in charge of sheperding her back to bed. Because I like to sleep, I tend to go to sleep around 9:30, and wait for the inevitable pitter patter of little feet tearing across the length of the house (she’s terrified of the dark, but more terrified of being alone). Yes, we could do the cry-it-out method. It could happen.

So, I do my very, very best to stick to “the Plan” – come home from dropping Penelope at daycare, and head into the studio, paint until I have to leave to pick her up. I sometimes leave NPR on, or more often, put on a podcast or an Audible selection. I use the ToDoist App to list what I need to do – because I LOVE ticking off checklists. Seriously, I really do.

I haven’t started the next series yet – I’m slowing down a little, but it’s happening. (Hint -Chicks,Bunnies, Flowers) Maybe Penelope will start sleeping through the night again.