A fun thing to do this September

    Leslie Saeta, the host of AHA will be hosting a 30 paintings in 30 days challenge on her

    blog Slices of Life.  I will be participating in this challenge  and  posting my daily paintings      here as well as on her blog and hope you will join in on the fun and leave comments about

    the work.

.

It's really easy to join the Challenge as you don't have to do much!

I invite you all to join me. It's very simple and easy ... all you need to do is paint 30 paintings in 30 days. You can post your paintings daily here on my blog to share and I hope my blog will offer encouragement for those of you who might fall behind, need inspiration or have no idea what to paint!

I am doing this challenge for a lot of reasons. Personally, I need to paint more so I know this challenge will get me in my studio every day. I also firmly believe that if you paint more regularly you will improve your painting skills in dramatically. I am sharing this with you because the 30 Day Challenge in January was simply, amazing!

So, what do you need to do to accept this challenge and stay on track? Well, here are my steps ...

1. Post a link to your blog below to say officially that you are in!

2. Make a commitment to yourself to enter this challenge and understand there may be days when you need to paint more than one painting to "get ahead" or "catch up".

3. Understand there are no real rules for this challenge. If you miss a day, then paint two the next day. If you fall behind, please stay in the challenge! No one is counting how many paintings you have completed (except you), I promise! The only rule is that you must have fun and enjoy the process.

4. Tell your art friends about this challenge and get them to join in so you can share your experiences with your art buddies!

5. Decide in advance on what you want to paint for the month. You might select a theme (such as painting still life, reflections, glass, flowers, landscapes, value studies, portraits or as in my case "no boats"!) or a particular size or different medium. I do suggest you paint fairly small as a painting a day is a big commitment.

6. Get organized. Go through your photos and pick at least the first week of inspiration or plan out your plein air locations in advance. Check your supplies to make sure you have enough canvas(es) for at least the first week. 

7. Spend an hour organizing your painting area. If you studio looks like mine (and is full of furniture for a beach house), a bit of organization is a good thing.

8. Tell your friends and family you are doing this. They can provide great support.

9. Blog about it. Be sure to upload your daily painting on your blog and put it on your blog and website. Talk about the experience, what you are learning and the fun you are having! Be sure to include prices (and please charge a price that makes it worth your while ... paintings listed too cheap seem too cheap) and an easy way for someone to buy your paintings (i.e. buy now buttons ...). Then share it also on Facebook.

10. Post your daily painting on my blog and include a link to the page on your blog featuring that painting. I am hoping the visibility here will help you sell your paintings! Who knows. I will also teach you how to create one of these collages (as seen above) featuring all 30 of your paintings when the challenge is over. You can post your collage to my blog too!

11. And most importantly, have fun. If you get behind no one will notice. If you do paint all 30 paintings then you will know you accomplished an amazing goal and have completed our "Back to School" Challenge with a bang! If you reach some hurdles, talk about it on my blog as all of us are here to help. We will support each other, I promise.

This is going to be fun.

Leslie