Retrospectives

Monthly Retrospective: November 2023

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I started November with a trip to Vancouver and a bunch of small travel sketches. Upon returning home, I hustled to finish my U.S. National Parks project. On another quick trip over the border to Toronto, I added a few more travel sketches. I also started #magrish_challenge_sky for my second year. I rounded out the … Read more

What I Learned from Painting All 63 U.S. National Parks in a Year

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In 2023, I challenged myself to paint at least one scene from each of the 63 US National Parks. I started in February, with a mini gouache of Big Bend as a sort of proof of concept, then began working my way down an alphabetical list. I finally finished with Zion in late November. You can find them all on my National Park Collection page (I’ve also included several in this post!)

Big Bend National Park in gouache on Bockingford HP. February 4, 2023.
Zion National Park in watercolor on Lanaquarelle. November 19, 2023.

This was a great opportunity to learn – not only about technique and about the parks themselves, but about my own preferences as an artist. Here’s what I discovered.

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Monthly Retrospective: September 2023

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In September, I continued painting National Parks; continued the #skieswithjt challenge; and I also participated in Kolbie Blume’s fourth challenge, Painting the Wilderness: Light! While I continued to focus on skies in September, my usual Summer of Skies is drawing to a close as I begin to focus on fall foliage. I slowed down toward … Read more

Monthly Retrospective: August 2023

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In August, I painted 15 paintings – well short of the nearly a-painting-a-day I had done in July and in the past few months. I’d been furiously painting to get ready for a community art sale where I sold a few paintings – for the first time ever! – but after that, I was feeling lazy. Also, I backed off from the National Parks Project at 75% done, feeling a bit depressed at the idea of painting Redwood while it’s on fire.

But! I have still been goofing around with paint. I tooled around with swatches and palettes, and I thought a lot about skies! I kept up with #skieswithjt on Instagram; and I made a real effort to improve my skies through observation and self-critique, in What to do with those old sunset photos? Paint ’em! The skies I painted after that post have turned out better!

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Monthly Retrospective: June 2023

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I started June attending a live remote class: dynamic skies with Leslie Lambert. This set the stage for month of skies! I continued doing the #skieswithjt weekly challenge by @jthomasart_ on instagram, which I started right at the end of May. I also continued my ongoing National Parks project. And I did some other paintings … Read more

Monthly Retrospective: May 2023

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May is Warbler Month in Massachusetts – the best month of the year for birding because exciting birds are briefly traveling through on their northward migration, singing and carrying on. (There’s also a fall migration, but because it’s shorter and quiet, I rarely see anything.) I was excited about the birds I was seeing and … Read more

Monthly Retrospective: April 2023

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The theme of this month was spring! I built my Spring Palette and painted some swatches and paintings – indoors and out – using spring colors and themes. Focusing more on my actual surroundings, I took a break from my National Park project until late in the month (then rapidly did four). It was an … Read more

Monthly Retrospective: March 2023

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This month, though I didn’t have any subscription services, I took a Domestika gouache class from Ruth Wilshaw, a one-day Grand Tetons class from Shelby Thayne, and a watercolor triad class from Jane Blundell through Art Toolkit (output not pictured below, since I did swatches instead of “full paintings”, but you can find the results … Read more