Milestone

With the completion of painting #75 comes the passing of a pretty significant milestone. In the beginning, I was unsure if I would be able to keep with the challenge. It's quite rewarding to see the 75 paintings I've created in the past 75 days. And I'm looking forward to completing 25 more in the next 25 days.

Here's a bit I wrote in the beginning, explaining why I chose to do the "100 paintings in 100 days" challenge:
http://lauragable.blogspot.com/2012/09/100-in-100-explained.html

A friend asked me yesterday about the lessons learned along the way, which has gotten me thinking. So here's a few things I've learned:
- that painting this frequently is easier than I thought it would be.
- that it's easier to create what I've set my mind on--"what the mind can perceive, it can achieve"
- that it's enjoyable to see some artistic progress in working with the medium. The paint manipulation comes much easier, and confidence grows ... so even though I think I know how to work the medium, there are always aspects to explore every time I pick up a brush.
- painting more frequently creates it's own momentum and I find I often want to paint more.
- there are days that it's a struggle. Romanticism aside, this can be very hard work--emotionally and physically. (My feet standing on hard studio floors have been speaking to me for awhile too).
- I've set mini goals as I've gone along, and so that's added to the exploration and kept it interesting. Of course, I've not quite achieved the looseness and lost and found edges I'm after, but I do see the art easing in that direction. Do we ever really "arrive"?

Stay tuned for more insight at the end of the challenge, and possible future goals.