I’m about to start a 30 paintings in 30 days challenge!!

Well after my last blog entry talking about self sabotage, I’m now plunging into a new challenge. Having a studio and not using it is a little like that gym membership you never use, so I’m giving myself a 30 day induction program!

If you fancy having a go you can join in here https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30.html

I signed up happily but now I’m wondering what the hell am I going to paint each day? Should I use photo references or set up still lives? What do I want to achieve?

Goals for me are:

Commitment
Learning to use technology to upload the photos onto the 30in30 blog
Developing my colour mixing
Being more selective with my brushstrokes
Developing a cleaner and more efficient way of working


Process:

I have decided that for the majority of the paintings, I’m going to use a 15cm x 15cm board. It’s a nice size to work with and I should be able to get a finished painting in a day.

I’ve also decided that each day will be a new painting. Any unfinished works will stay that way, a work in progress.

So far I have gessoed half of my boards in preparation. They come with one layer of gesso already but the surface is pretty porous, so I’m going to give them 3 more coats.

Deciding on a theme:

Now this is tricky. There are some things I’d love to achieve, for example I’d like to paint a perfect black cat, I find painting them a real challenge. I have my own black cat, so I have an easy reference right there. So that could be my first weeks theme.

For the second week I’d like to focus on still lives and the relationships between objects and colours, so I’ll get some props and set up some still lives in the studio.

For the third and forth weeks, well I’m hoping by the third week a natural progression will occur and as a result I’ll have more creative ideas, I might create some still lives using specific colour palettes or combine my still lives with my black cat.

I obviously reserve the right to throw all of this out of the window and paint whatever I fancy! But at least it’s a start!!

How to support me!!!!

Follow my instagram, Facebook or twitter pages and follow my blog here.

Buy a painting.

I will be numbering these paintings and selling them on a first come first served basis. Each painting will go up in increments of £5 starting at £30.

The first painting on day one will be £30, the last one on day 30 will be £175 any bought in weeks 3 and 4 will include a hand painted frame.

If you wish to reserve a day please go to my contact page and let me know which day you’d like to reserve and pay for.



Wish me luck as I walk into February armed with my brushes and new tubes of Michael Harding oil paints!