I'm about to embark upon a 30 day painting journey taking on the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge presented by Leslie Saeta. Somewhere around 750 other artists are doing the same and we will be posting our work daily here.

For my theme, I'm reaching back to my 100 day project from a few months ago where I selected a daily photo from my Instagram feed and did a sketch on my iPhone. This time I'm selecting 30 out of the 100 and turning those into paintings. This should be an interesting challenge. I plan on posting on Instagram and tagging the original user again inviting them into the process again!

It will look a little something like this:

Original Instagram photo:

100 Day iPhone sketch:

30 in 30 days painting:

If you would like to join in the fun, it's not too late!

In this new year, where are you going to push yourself?

This is the question I've been facing. It's easy for me to avoid the next challenge. To get lazy. Or when faced with a new opportunity, to get anxious. All the "what if's" come and haunt me.

But I decided I really do want to move the ball down the field this year. I have yet to show my work in my own solo gallery exhibit. I haven't sold much of my art to date. I haven't entered any art contests.

Well, on one front things are about to move forward. I'm happy to say that I'll be showing my work at the Clinton library in their exhibit space, this coming August. It's small and local, but I'm grateful for a beginning. And this came about because I saw a Facebook post in an art group I belong to. I decided to push myself and inquire.

I also pushed myself in adding my name in the ring to co-host an art radio talk show that looks for different monthly co-hosts. I'm a bit out of the normal range (most are women and have a bit more of a fine art background and presence) but I just told myself to just go for it. The worst thing that can happen is that it doesn't happen. (Which is probably the case but hey, you don't know until you try).

This isn't new years resolution stuff. This is in line with my asking: What's the right next step? And for me, where I'm at on this journey, this is right.

{photo credit}