30 Paintings in 30 Days kick off

I've been staging my work area for the start of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge which begins on January 1st. As I'm writing this there are nearly 1,000 artists from all over the world signed up to participate, and you can follow everyone's progress on Leslie Saeta's event blog. And you may, of course, follow my progress right here or on FaceBook.

THE SPECS:

The paintings will be made with my usual limited palette of white, 2 blues, yellow, magenta, and purple with the addition of 2 browns. I am going to do my best to complete 30 new 6" x 6" paintings by the end of January.

THE THEME:

As Leslie suggested, I have chosen a theme for the month. I wanted to do some kind of memory challenge.

I pass a stand of pine trees on the drive to and from my daughter’s preschool every day. Not very remarkable, near the golf course. But one afternoon I saw the winter sun at 3pm highlighting only the center of the pines, spilling onto the ground, the light peeking through a break in the trees across the street. For whatever reason this image stuck with me. I probably only saw it for 15 seconds as I passed, maybe 30 if I craned to look in the rear view mirror. I keep driving past the trees at different times of day trying to revisit the light effect of that one afternoon, but it was a fleeting moment. I have no photo. And I made my rough sketch (sitting on the red tool box in the photo above) a few weeks later. Luckily the scene has good bones. This will free me up to explore the scene many times, trying to get back to what grabbed me that afternoon while not being married to the motif. This month I will try to show you the essence of what caught my eye. And maybe by the end of the month I will have done it. Just in case I get stuck, here's my painting disclaimer: I give myself permission to wander from this theme and to paint anything at all to keep pace for the challenge. But whatever I paint will come from memory.

TO PURCHASE:

I will offer these unframed paintings for the special price of $100 each through midnight on February 10th. And then they will return to regular price. When I post my daily artwork here there will be a PayPal button underneath. To purchase a painting, click the button, and you will be prompted to log in to your PayPal account or to use your credit card as a PayPal guest. If you live in Maryland, PayPal will also collect sales tax on your purchase. I have moved all of the artwork to my Etsy shop for ease of purchase.

USING A GIFT CERTIFICATE:

If you would like to redeem a Barb Mowery Fine Art Gift Certificate, go to my on-line shop and select the item(s) you would like to buy with the gift certificate. Click the green 'Checkout' button. Choose the 'Other' payment option. In the 'Message to Seller' section, please type in the coupon code. I will send you a message within Etsy to confirm your order and invoice for any additional balance due.

(Fine print: A Barb Mowery Fine Art Gift Certificate is only valid for the purchase of artwork by Barb Mowery. It is *not* an Etsy gift card. The unique coupon code may only be redeemed at http://www.etsy.com/shop/bbmowery. This gift certificate is non-refundable. It may be replaced if lost or stolen by contacting Barb Mowery directly. Not valid on previous orders.)

SHIPPING INFO:

Within the United States I send my paintings via USPS Priority Mail with full insurance. If you are outside of the continental United States, I will calculate your shipping and email you a PayPal invoice for the international shipping costs.