Reflecting on 2006

Watercolor on Arches paper, 11×8
(To enlarge, click image, select All Sizes)

I like to spend New Years Eve quietly reflecting on the past year and the new one. This year Michael’s home sick and I’m spending the evening more quietly than usual, alone in the studio thinking about life and art. I decided to make a self-portrait and will plan to do that each New Year. As I get older, it is both fascinating and disconcerting to see the changes gravity and age are leaving on my face.

I took a few photos holding the camera at arms length and then picked this one to paint from. After doing a freehand drawing, painting it, wrecking the painting, and not having enough time left in the evening to start over from scratch, I must admit I used a lightbox to trace the basic shapes for the painting above.

In her post, Celebrate Your Progress in 2006, on her blog Making a Mark, Katherine Tyrrell posted a list of topics for artists to write about. I decided to take the challenge and write about my art accomplishments in 2006:

Blogging: In May 2006 I discovered the wonderful, world-wide community of artist bloggers and started my own blog. In August 2006 a reporter from the Oakland Tribune interviewed me about my blog and the article appeared on the front page of the paper. My blog was also featured on Best Blog on WordPress and Moleskinerie. Some stats: I’ve made 205 posts, received 2,004 generous comments with nearly 47,000 total views. The most views on any one day was 498; the average is between 250-350 a day.

Numbers of art works completed: More than 300 paintings, drawings, sketches, monoprints, and digital illustrations.

Study/Learning:
Drawing: As a result of daily drawing, I’ve seen my ability improve tremendously. I used to draw and paint only from photos that I composed and enlarged in Photoshop and then traced onto watercolor paper. Now I draw most things freehand.
Classes: I’ve taken one weekend painting workshop, signed up for a painting trip to Mexico in February 2007 with watercolor teacher Judy Morris.
Study: I’ve read piles and piles of books on art, design, drawing, painting, digital art, and art history. New Media/Technique: I began doing plein air painting in Summer 2006 and learning about landscape painting. In the past couple months I’ve been exploring monoprinting and other print-making techniques and began studying oil painting. I also purchased and began to use Painter to do digital drawing and painting illustrations.

Art business (always a challenge — I’d rather paint):
Teaching: I’ve had the privilege to teach several sessions of watercolor classes to some very inspiring and talented artists from whom I learned at least as much I taught.
Sales: A buyer in another state found my website via a link to it from the California Watercolor Association’s website and made a major purchase of one of my favorite paintings.
Shows: I was selected for a one-woman show that will be hung in March of 2007. I had slides made and submitted them to the CWA National Show but otherwise have not been focusing on showing in 2006.
Prints: I’ve worked with a local studio to make professional scans and giclee prints of my work.
Framing: I am currently in the process of framing 8 watercolor paintings.

So those are the accomplishments. I’ll write about the challenges tomorrow as part of my Art Plan for 2007.

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31 replies on “Reflecting on 2006”

Hi Jana – it’s good to do this isn’t it? You’ve always done far more than you think you have! I’m very impressed with your achievements – that’s a great list.

I’ve got to the 1st January and I’m still adding to my list as I remember more things so I’m going for a double post today on Making A Mark I think – looking back to 2006 and looking forward to 2007.

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31 replies on “Reflecting on 2006”