Day 23 and I’ve painted elephant ears, Blue Hawaii colocasia to be more precise. I grow these most years. I like the dark reddish purple stalks and veining contrasting withe greens.

Elephant ears have always been a favorite of mine. My friend Lanna gave me a sack full of bulbs of giant elephant ears that were from her grandmother’s stock. They are the ruffled edge kind and grow straight up. They are gorgeous. I thought I posted about them last year but I can’t find it. I need to do a better job of tagging my posts. Or maybe I posted it on my page on Facebook. I have both an art page and a garden page. Not many know about the garden page. I’d love it if you came over and checked it out. Click here to see it.

Anyway back to these elephant ears. As with most of my paintings during this challenge, they started off with a sketch. A messy looking, but hopeful sketch. I used to use a pencil, but that doesn’t always get covered up by the paint because a lot of paints are transparent. So now, I mostly use a white hard pastel or charcoal. The charcoal tends to dirty up lighter colors, so I mostly use the white pastel.

I’ve discovered a few things during this challenge, it’s just got a week left(!). One is no matter how bad I feel a painting is, if I can just stick it out until it’s finished then a lot of the kinks get smoothed out and the finished piece ends up looking satisfactory. I think every single painting I’ve painted so far, I’ve said out loud to myself “This sucks!”.

Every single one! This one included.

I think some of these paintings I’ve done would make fantastic larger paintings. The largest I’ve painted for this challenge has been 8″x10″. Most of them are 8″x8″. If I painted on larger canvas though, that would be expensive. I don’t consider every painting a success in a way that I’m happy with how it turned out, but I do consider it a success that I stuck it out and finished it even when I was struggling.

Yesterday’s orchid was like that. It was really late and I hadn’t gotten dinner ready for my family yet and I was getting impatient with how long it was taking. Unconsciously, I think at least, I started to paint faster and therefore messier just to finish it up. To my surprise it ended up making the painting better. I didn’t need to worry and fuss about as I often get caught up in doing. That’s another lesson I’ve learned. Stop fussing.

These elephant ears of mine (the real plants) love to grow in water. If you’ve ever been to Hawaii, then you’ve had to have seen the taro fields. That’s what these are, taro. They make poi out of the root. It’s a staple in Hawaiian culture and it’s kinda gross. We went to a luau and they told us poi is used mostly as a palette cleanser if I remember correctly. Bleh. No thank you.

I won’t be back until Monday, and that means no painting over the weekend. I’m going out of town with some girlfriends and we’re going on another ghost investigation. Yes, I’m one of those. We have a blast, it’s like a slumber party for us. And with three of us who are “sensitive” to energy, we almost always have some sort of a paranormal experience. We usually rent a place for the entire evening if we can afford it and it’s not too far a drive for us all. We’re in four different locations. This time, we’re off to Fox Hollow Farms in central Indiana. It’s a public investigation, which isn’t the best, but we couldn’t get it for just ourselves with only three of us going this time (there’s usually four).

We’re going to a group tour by American Hauntings hosted by Troy Taylor. I’ve been to one of his before, The Original Springs Hotel in Okawville, Illinois a few years back.

If you’re interested in reading about some of my ghost adventures, just click here.

UPDATE: 4/12/18 This painting is now available for sale at Stac Art Gallery

What’s the point of the 30 Paintings in 30 days challenge?

I want to be a better painter. To be a better painter, I must paint more and more.

The whole point of the challenge is to get yourself back in the habit of painting everyday. Now I haven’t stopped painting, but I certainly haven’t painted as much as I wanted in the last few months. So I’m joining in with the challenge to give myself a goal and to help me to feel held accountable, too. Not that the Painting Police will come and pick me up if I don’t paint everyday, it’s more of a self motivation thing. I’ve signed up on Leslie’s website and I’m hoping to be able to accomplish a lot of painting.

I’m not expecting to get gallery worthy paintings each day, I may not even paint a whole new painting each day. I’ve been there done that and that was stressful. I put the stress on myself, but nonetheless, it was stressful. I do hope to foster the act of going into my studio each and every day to get more painting accomplished. You know what they say about habits, it takes 21 days to form one. It will help me get better by practicing more and more.

See the paintings I’ve painted during this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by.

About Me

Learn more about me on the ‘About’ page in the menu at the top. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started creating more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is mystery.

If you would like to keep up with what I’m doing, join my email list. About once a month I send out a letter that gives you invitations for shows, birthday greeting, sneak peeks at new work and more. I’d love for you to add your email to my Friends and Collectors list!