What I learned from Inktober2019

Well ya'll I definitely didn't make 31 paintings in 31 days! It was a big goal, and life just got in the way. Life does that! And you know what? I'm not even disappointed! I had goals for this month, and while I didn't meet the concrete deadline of painting everyday, I did meet my MORE IMPORTANT goals:

1) Make work! I've been accepted into the Mountain Brook Art Association Christmas Show, and I need work to sell! Since I paint mostly commissions, I don't have a lot of stock sitting around! I have made quite a few little paintings, and I'm not out of time yet!

2) Cultivate a new attitude towards STARTING. A month ago actually sitting down to paint was the HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD. Once I start painting, you can't make me stop. But any artist will tell you there's a resistance to actually making work. There's a hill you have to climb to get to the happy painting land. And there's a pile of stuff on that hill you have to ignore in order to climb it! Dirty dishes, grocery shopping, organizing your studio, updating your website. Maybe you only have two hours so what's the point? But those things aren't painting! And painting is what I actually want to be doing!

I lost track of how many times I STARTED painting this month, but it was a lot! I finished over ten pieces, several of which took many sittings. Compared to September, (during which I did have one very large piece which took a lot of time), I completed three paintings. THREE! That's over three times as many. So, yeah, I'm very happy with the results from my experiment!

Thank you guys for hanging in there with me, and cheering me on!