A few weeks back, I was overthinking my painting practice. It was nowhere near where I wanted it to be. After a few days of spinning ideas about what and how I could change, I decided that my top goal always was to do something creative or painting-related every day. A sketch, a study, a whole painting. It doesn’t matter if it only takes fifteen minutes or several hours. But how would I put that into reality? I always plan out strategically in my head, but the execution is a whole different story.
That’s when Carol Marine’s book “Daily Painting” came to my mind. I had it for a few years, but only ever read what seemed like the most relevant chapters at the time. I’ve never taken the time to read it from the beginning. So, what was her intention, and how did she realize it? Since the book's title was obvious, I thought this was the beginning of my painting habit changes. I read the first few pages, and I could relate so much. Our situations aren’t the same, but I felt understood.
I joined Carol’s site dailypaintworks.com and began to paint more regularly. Fast forward a few weeks, all of the beginning euphoria was fading, and other priorities made it to the top of my to-do list. Painting had to move once again, like many times before.
However, the idea of daily painting and my goal to create new habits is still present. So I decided to give it another try. And what better time could there be than the time of the European Championship in which my fiancé is highly involved? He would love to watch every game if possible. That means a lot of time for myself.
My goals for this 30-day painting challenge are mainly creating a new habit of daily painting and staying loose in my paintings. But I already know there will be a few hurdles I will face during this time. Normally, we only show the “perfect” paintings we are happy with. This pushes me to show all my work and overcome perfectionism and my never-ending love-hate relationship with social media.
So what will this challenge look like daily?
I will create one small oil painting on paper per day, document my process, and share it with you on all my socials. This could be a reel or a picture post a day. Once a week, I will share a blog post about how the week went. What I learned, the wins, and the struggles. I plan to send a weekly newsletter with all the new artwork and a reminder for my latest blog post.
I think this is it for today’s post. You will hear from me soon.
Tomorrow marks the start of this exciting journey. I'm both nervous and excited about the challenges and growth that await me. Stay tuned for updates on my progress and the artwork I create.
Thank you for reading and following along my painting journey.
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