A year ago I decided to sign up for Leslie Saeta‘s 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge. I got to day 27 and then life hit the skids

This artistic challenge was good for me and I learned a lot. So when I saw that the challenge was happening again, I really thought about how to do it again.

Option 1: Pick a subject and do a painting a day on that subject. An example would be pears or another subject that could be done in lots of variations.

Option 2: Do a new subject each day (like I did last year.)

Option 3: During the week, use my lunch hour to paint and try to do bigger paintings on the weekends.

Additionally, there are some challenges to overcome in the next month. I have two full work weeks where I will be going around the state for trainings. My mom will be having surgery, and that will take some time. And it’s a month of a lot of fun things to do (OFFF!)

Last year I did option 2 and it was hard. I ended up cutting myself short on sleep to make it work, which makes the whole thing harder. I also spent more time prepping and looking for what to paint that actually painting.

I pondered a subject I felt passionate enough to do 30 times. Of course, horses came to mind.

But in the end, I decided to do option 3 in the following manner: During my lunches I’ll take my easel out and paint at work (I work right next to Mill Creek in Salem and when I go around the state, there should be lots of things to paint); on weekends I will try to work on larger things.

So today I took my easel to work and painted on my lunch.

And forgot to bring the painting home to show you.