A New Year: The Adventure Continues

Pear Shadows 2012

Please take a moment to vote on this paintng "Pear Shadow" in the Bold Brush competition.

Thanks!

Welcome 2013!!

I am so excited about what this new year will bring to this adventure I am on.  I started painting almost daily in January of 2010.  That means I am starting my fourth FOURTH year of painting!!  Wow!  Has it really been that long?  My goal when I started this adventure was to improve my painting skills.



Here are a couple of the first paintings I did way back in 2010.
















  Despite experimenting along the way with various painting techniques, I think I knew all along that I would enjoy painting still life set-ups in the realist style.  Even way back then, there are some things I really like about these paintings.  But I have definitely learned a few things along the way.  The one thing I have learned is that improving my painting is not an over-night thing.  It has taken hours and hours of study and practice. 

I want to share an article with you by Steven Pressfield.  It was very inspiring ( and a little daunting).

Here is a snippet:  Go to How Pro Are You?  to read the entire article.

"
In real life, depth of commitment is more important than talent. It’s more important than beauty or skill, more important even than luck, because its produce is perseverance, endurance, tenacity.
My friend Hermes Melissanidis won a gold medal in gymnastics at the Atlanta Olympics. (Here’s his final performance if you want to see something amazing.)
When Hermes was nine, he saw gymnastics on TV for the first time. He knew at once that this was what he wanted to do.

I went to my parents and told them I wanted to dedicate myself to training and win a gold medal in the Olympic Games. Would they let me? I promised to work and pay them back.
My family are all doctors. The idea that I would pursue gymnastics instead of medicine was out of the question. I was nine years old. My mother and father refused to even hear of it.
I decided to go on a hunger strike. I don’t know how I even knew what a hunger strike was. But I announced that I would not eat until my family agreed to let me study gymnastics.
After four days, they caved. Not all the way though. They made me promise that, along with training as a gymnast, I would continue my studies and become a doctor. I agreed.

Hermes did both."

You can read part 2 of Steven's article HERE>

So as I look around at the accomplished artists I see, I have to ask myself.  Are they standing around whining about the ecomony?  Or about other circumstances that are interfering with what they want to do?

No!

They are putting their heads down and working their tails off to reach their goals.

So I guess the bottom line is, we can't expect Olympic gold medal results if we don't put in gold medal efforts.  And if we don't want or expect to win "the Olympics", and we're ok with that, then we can be satisfied as long as we are working toward what ever goals we have set for ourselves.

Well I have to end this article here because I find that spending too much time on the internet is interfering with my goal of improving my art. Ha!

But I will still check in.  After all, we all need a few breaks in our days.

P.S.  I will be publishing a monthly newsletter starting this month.  ( One of my new goals).  You can sign up in one easy step.  HERE>



Be sure to check out my giveaway going on through March 31st HERE!