Sunday, January 2, 2011

Looking towards 2011

I've spent quite a lot of time thinking about what I want to accomplish this year. 2010 was such an amazing year for me - I started working on my MFA and I can see how much my art has improved in just one short year.



This was one of the first paintings I posted to this blog. Pretty colors, okay drawing, but lots of room for improvement. And below is my final project in Still Life. Night and day difference and improvement. Still, I want to get back to the above style more and loosen up a bit. My work has gotten a little tight for my taste ;).



In any case, last year was another kind of reactionary year, which irked me. Since mid 2008, life has been totally crazy (all in good ways!), but as a result, I've lost some really good habits that I want to find again. So, as a result, here are some things I would like to do this year (in no particular order):


  1. Sketch every day (see www.lizsteel.com for inspiration!)
  2. Paint at least five small paintings per week
  3. Start developing a more painterly style
  4. Exercise regularly
  5. Start a Singapore cityscape series
  6. Write more handwritten letters
  7. Eat in more
  8. Eat healthier
  9. Call a friend once a week and catch up
  10. Visit 5 new places this year (I have tickets booked for Taiwan and I am hoping Beijing in May!)
  11. Get outside to paint!
  12. Get over my fear of painting/sketching something good every time. I need to get used to not worrying about messing up.
  13. Stop reading so much news, it is depressing and eats up too much time. Instead, focus on other artist blogs for insight and inspiration (www.makingamark.com gave me the idea for this blog post, as well as some other fabulous ideas on other artists to follow.)


Okay, thats it for now. I have so much running through my head right now, but I think I'm going to close with something I heard another person say in conversation one night.  It is edited (slightly) for language, but honestly, I think this is going to be my mantra for 2011:

"Forget contentment.  There is no better feeling than doing something difficult, something on the edge of your abilities, and then succeeding."  - Anonymous  

Here is to a challenging and fulfilling 2011!
- Posted from my iPad

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