I can’t believe I have actually completed another
30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge….
but I really did!
Many thanks to my “art mentor”, Leslie Byrd Saeta. The 30-in-30 challenges are her idea. She challenges me on to do the almost impossible. Leslie is my “best friend I’ve never met!” She lives in California, paints with palette knives only and is the age of our children. Regardless, she inspires me with her beautiful artwork, contagious, can-do attitude….and hard work.
What an adventure it has been! This is my third 30-in-30 challenge and when I finished the first two I promised myself…”Never again!” But this time was different; I switched mediums, from all acrylics to all watercolors with some ink and/or pencil sketching techniques. It was refreshing. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to draw. Sure, an artist can draw with a brush, but I draw best with an ink pen, graphite or charcoal pencil.
Prior to beginning the 30-in-30 challenge, I spent some extra time this past summer “practicing” watercolors and thereby produced 15 paintings….(which I did not post as part of the challenge…to be completely fair.) Watercolor was my medium of choice a few years back, but I switched to acrylics because I longed for rich, vivid colors. Maybe by now I’ve learned a little about painting rich, vivid colors in watercolors as well.
One more thing; I painted all the above mentioned paintings with only one brush….just one….and I’ve had it for years. It has a pretty blue handle and was sitting in the little brushes jar waiting for its chance to shine.
A couple of years ago I gave all my watercolors to our eldest Grandson, Stephen, (an incredibly talented artist). Now I needed some watercolors and ordered this little pan of 24 watercolors thinking this would just be a temporary medium choice! It cost only about $30 on Amazon. Oh yes, I had to run to the art supply store for two additional colors to supplement my palette. The photo shows the amount of watercolors remaining after creating 45 paintings. Wow! I thought sure I would use them all up in a short time. Not so.
Now the real challenge is carrying on with my ever-present question rattling around in my head….”Which medium do I like best?” I still don’t know.
Ever onward,
Visit my website, http://www.artbyadelebower.com
Letters From Adele 
Ah, what diligence! : ) GW
Gloria, The challenge was a lot of fun along with hard work. Best wishes to you and Walt.
Absolutely beautiful work. Congratulations and well done.
I love you,
Karen
Sent from my iPhone
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Thanks, Karen. It’s great to be through with that commitment. I love you, too.
Congratulations on a successful month! You are amazing! I can’t believe you keep your watercolors so pretty, after that much use. As a little girl, I loved watercolors, but I always ended up ruining mine because the colors would get mixed. But then, I’m NOT an artist!
Thank you, Becky. Keeping pigments clear of other colors is a challenge in any medium. All the mixing should be done apart from the palette. With acrylics I use a palette knife to mix the colors in the center of my palette; with watercolors I dip the wet brush into a color, transfer that to a little pan….rinse brush………dip clean brush into second color…transfer that to the little pan…repeat and repeat until I get the mixture you want. Whew!