Now that the 30 Day Challenge is over, I’m taking some time to reflect on all I’ve learned. It was a wonderful, expeditious way to discover more about my art, style, practice, and preferences.

Beginning with negative takeaways, it was an exhausting, aggressive pace to produce a painting every day. It was not my typical method, working within one set topic each day. It felt very limiting, and for me, it was almost forcing the creative process. I tend to paint as the ideas come to me rather than trying to fit within a certain category. Because of this, I am not enamored with some of the paintings. While I am proud of the results, they were not produced in my preferred circumstances. I am partial to basing my paintings on familiar scenes- memories, photographs, and real life- transformed through imagination. Painting purely from imagination is not my style at this point in my career.

In the same vein, ‘Abstract’ presented a particular challenge. With such a broad prompt, it took me four or five restarts trying to do too much before I was reminded that my style is already pushing the boundary of realism. Thus, ‘Abstract’ was born, based on the style of my previous paintings and in keeping with a subject I love. True abstraction (color field, abstract expressionism, minimal, modern, etc.) is not the style for me right now. It’s not how I want to express myself and not what brings me joy.

A quick side note- I do frequently work in a hard-edge painting style, but as my paintings are founded in realism, they do not fall entirely into the abstract category.

And now, the positive takeaways. Overall, I really enjoyed working in different styles. I tried out a looser style of realism, shorter impressionistic brushstrokes, and more tonalism. I experimented with colors a lot and, surprise surprise, I love all the blues!

In ‘Fruit’, colors fracture from the grapes, creating a more abstract depiction. I love the looseness, and the way the smooth gradations lead into the subtle glow. It’s a style I’ve never worked in before, but the painting turned out really well and is one of my favorites from the collection.

I was able to practice realistic landscapes, which have not historically been my strong suit. With ‘Mist’, ‘Winter’, ‘Mountains’, and ‘Shadows’, it turned out rather well. They are dynamic and well-composed in a way that my previous paintings have lacked.

I was also able to set a good routine, making time for art in the morning and evening around work hours. Except now that the challenge is over, it is a less rigid routine, and I can take time for the gym, daily chores, and downtime as well as continuing to paint.

Overall, I am very glad I took on this challenge. It set a productive tone to 2023, helped give me structure, focus, practice, and insight, and I am very excited to see where this year takes me and my art.