A New Year

A rest stop on the central Oregon Coast

Happy New Year!

I am always glad to welcome a new year. We arrived home last night around 8:30pm, too tired from an exhausting drive down and back to celebrate the life of my father-in-law who passed away on the 14th of December. We did not stay up to ring in the new year.

Due to weather and road conditions our 15 hour drive to Sonora, CA turned into an 18 hour drive. This is how we have always started our visits to my husband's family. I decided that from now on, we make that drive over 3 days and arrive rested and ready to visit for a change! The memorial was bittersweet as they usually are and we enjoyed a loving visit with family before heading back home.

I had hoped to go on a short excursion to Yosemite National Park which is a 2 hour drive away from where my in-laws live but alas, I was just too tired to go. I had hoped to paint a sketch in the short time I would have had there. Oh well, I would rather plan for a proper excursion, say at least a week, where I can do such stunning beauty justice.

Today I spent the day cleaning and putting things away from our travels, doing errands, and getting ready and set up to hit the ground painting tomorrow. Tomorrow the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge starts. I will also be studying and improving my art business/marketing. There may be a few changes to my blog and website.
In addition to keeping quite busy this month with the challenge and study of the business side of art-making, I got the following color system to study for Christmas:

Munsell Student Color Set

I have studied other color systems in the past such as Itten's but never Munsell's. I am intrigued and have read of several artists who use it. I like the way it is organized. I will be studying this in between everything else so it will be a bit broken up. I will post the completed exercises in their own posts with nice labels so that anyone who is interested can easily find just the Munsell color posts to read about.
Well, I must get my gear ready to head out so I can paint wave study #16 tomorrow and then off to bed. Still trying to catch up on sleep.
This is going to be fun...and a lot of work. Stay tuned!

Year's End-What is your Challenge/Vision?

It seems appropriate that I am finishing up one challenge, the Sketchbook Project, and launching a new one, my Mid-Century Challenge at this time. This is my final post for 2010, unless something wildly exciting happens between now and Saturday. You never know...
Here are two oil sketches from my Sketchbook Project. I have two left to go and might even get a bonus two in before the week is out.

In between painting the sketches, I am working on my vision board for 2011. I have some big visions to put up!
If you have been reading these posts, you have probably seen the personal challenge I put up in the previous post. I have a few better ideas to add to phase 2 but I will mention those later.
I would like to ask all of you, What is your personal challenge for 2011? I would love to hear about it, big or small. If you got a challenge going, or are thinking of getting one going, please mention it in the comments section.
I would also love to see any vision boards you are willing to share. Please post a link in the comments section as well. I will be posting mine here to share with others.
One final note on the Sketchbook Project, I plan to put a slideshow of the pages on this blog. It will also be touring the country with the other entries. I will have more info on that later. I am also going to try to get a video, related to my sketchbook up, weather permitting. I haven't posted a slideshow or video on my blog before so we shall see how it works.
Have a wonderful and safe New Year! 2011 is going to be amazing (hopefully amazingly good), I just feel it in my bones.
See you all next year and don't be shy about sharing your challenges and visions!
-Renee