A new year, new challenges, How will you challenge yourself?
I have decided to try and improve my still life paintings. They require all the skills of observation, working from life, checking the angles, proportions, tonal values etc. A new year, new challenges
In the past, I was rarely happy with my still life paintings, I always felt it was an ‘old fashioned’ genre. So with the onset of winter when my ‘plein air’ painting almost ceases, I took the bull by the horns. Adding new studio lighting I began painting and sketching in earnest. In case I ran out of ideas and motivation, I signed up for the ‘Strada easel challenge’. A daily painting challenge during January, to compete for prizes including some Strada easels. They are very ‘top of the range’ American kit, used for plein air painting.
I wasn’t especially interested in the prizes, just in the daily painting excercises. Keen to improve my compositions and still life painting skills, it proved excellent. Although it is still early days, I am enjoying the process and the challenge that each day has to offer.
Shown here are a plastic bottle of refined linseed oil, as used by artists everywhere. Also a bottle of Delerium Tremens, a favourite 8 1/2% strong belgian beer. Also shown, is a pewter tankard, and a bottle of Prosecco from Italy.
How will you challenge yourself in 2022? What skill would you like to improve, do let me know in the comments below or on the contact me page.
Question, Do you like to set yourself new challenges in the new year? Perhaps to learn new skills, or improve others?
I do know artists who never seem to improve or change their methods. They go on producing much the same output as twenty years earlier! That wouldn’t suit me.