Monthly Retrospective: February 2023

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Goal Updates

In January, I set a February goal and prompty forgot it! Evidently, I was supposed to not spend money, but I did. I bought a few paints. Oh well. On the plus side, I did cancel all my monthly fees/classes (Kolbie Blume’s Artist Co-op, Claire Giordano’s Adventure Art Academy, Skillshare). I’ve enjoyed all of these subscriptions, but I found myself falling further and further behind, and feeling like they were chores/sources of FOMO instead of fun. I also was feeling like I didn’t have time to do my own thing, and that some of my favorite random paintings come from just being bored, which I wasn’t letting myself do. So it was mostly time-related, but it didn’t help that it was all a continuous small drain on my bank account. So while I’m still doing the occasional one-off class, I’m going without subscriptions! I was kind of afraid to cut the cord, but I have to admit I feel more free than regretful, and I’m in no hurry to jump back into a commitment. I’m just going to see what happens for a bit.

Goal-setting is evidently not working super well, and it’s already well into March as I write this, so I’m not going to set one for this month. I think it’s more fun to identify a month theme in retrospect, anyway.

The Paintings

In February, I did Maria Smirnova’s Skies class on Skillshare (before leaving Skillshare). Despite leaving the Artist Co-op, I also participated in a lot of Kolbie Blume tutorials because they held another 10-day challenge (and I did some re-dos of old ones as well). And I continued to explore gouache and began a gouache series of National Parks – not for a class!

Although I didn’t paint every day, I did multiple pieces on some days (especially for challenges), so all in all I did 32 paintings in 28 days.

Click on the image to open in a new tab.

Day 1 of Kolbie Blume’s Fall 2022 10-Day Challenge (redo). February 1, 2023.
Day Moon. February 2, 2023.
Gouache cloud. February 3, 2023.
Big Bend National Park in gouache. February 4, 2023.
Layered Mountains. February 5, 2023.
Blue sky from Maria Smirnova’s Realistic Skies skillshare. February 6, 2023.
Night sky from Maria Smirnova’s Realistic Skies skillshare. February 6, 2023.
Pink sunset from Maria Smirnova’s Realistic Skies skillshare. February 6, 2023.
Cloudy sunset from Maria Smirnova’s Realistic Skies skillshare. February 6, 2023.
Two-color sunset from Maria Smirnova’s Realistic Skies skillshare. February 6, 2023.
Final project from Maria Smirnova’s Realistic Skies skillshare. February 7, 2023.
Project for Maria Smirnova’s Realistic Skies class. February 9, 2023.
Clouds on location. February 10, 2023.
Pink Clouds. February 10, 2023.
Canyonlands National Park in gouache. February 11, 2023.
Cotton Candy Sky redo. February 12, 2023.
Sky Candy. February 13, 2023.
Sky Candy Mark II. February 13, 2023.
Gray Lake. February 14, 2023.
Gray Lake, colorful grays version. February 14, 2023.
Golden Haze. February 15, 2023.
Autumn Trails. February 16, 2023.
Arctic Prism. February 17, 2023.
Acadia National Park in gouache. February 18, 2023.
American Samoa National Park in gouache. February 19, 2023.
Rainbow Desert. February 20, 2023.
Gradient Peak. February 21, 2023.
Light in the Forest. February 22, 2023.
Violet Night. February 24, 2023.
Mountain Dreams. February 25, 2023.
Arches National Park in gouache. February 26, 2023.
Arches National Park in watercolor. February 26, 2023.