Halfway there

It’s day ten of my project to upload a daily painting to my Etsy shop in celebration of my twenty years in Lochcarron (I wrote more about my reasons behind it here) and I can’t believe I’m halfway there already. Just ten more paintings to go. It’s been an interesting experience and quite a challenge but I think that uploading an image a day has been good for me and helped me think and act more professionally.

I try to be in the studio every day, for at least a couple of hours. I’ve been out and about in the village and surrounding area, sketching, drawing and taking photos to use later in the studio.

I’ve tried to balance the views of the village that I’ve included amongst the twenty paintings, but this area has so many beautiful places to paint that I’ve really been spoiled for choice.

I’ve sketched my choices and then blocked out each painting. When I’m happy with composition of each piece I’ve added details and finished the paintings.

When I decided to do this project I bought white mounts and cello bags and when each painting is finished I’ve popped it in a mount, put a backing on it and then put it in a cello bag ready to be posted.

I’ve also had to be quite organised with social media and each day, after I’ve added that day’s image to the Etsy shop I’ve shared the details on my social media sites. My daughter gave me her old iphone, which has really helped me with my Instagram images, as no matter what I did with photographs before, they always seemed to come out blurred on my old phone.

I’ve tried to have several paintings finished ahead of time and managed it so far, again, that has been a learning curve and has helped me really focus on what’s important in running an online business, what I need to focus on and the discipline needed to do something like this.

I’ve got a lot of exciting things coming up this year, most of which I can’t share yet, but this project has given me the kickstart I need I think, to help keep me focussed for all the work I have ahead of me in the next few months.