Day 27 Mexican Petunias Painting

I cannot believe it’s Day 27 of the 30 in 30. This month has flown by for me and I’ve got a lot of paintings to show for it. Today I painted one of my favorite purple flowers to grow, Mexican Petunias.

I got a start of Mexican Petunias from my friend Amelia a few years ago and I’ve managed to keep it going ever since. Every fall, it comes into the greenhouse for a winter vacation. I just love the dusty purple on these flowers. I have read on some of the many blogs and sites I follow that further south, like Florida and Texas they are sort of a nuisance plant.

I happen to love the resilience these Mexican Petunias have. They have the ability to grow in wet ground and very dry ground. With blooms as beautiful as these, I don’t get it! Maybe they just are a bully in the garden and I understand that, we have plenty of those here, too. I just pull out the ones I don’t want. I’d rather have too many than not enough, I love a full and lush look.

My electronic process for uploading these paintings

During this challenge I’ve learned that I need to pick simple photos from which to paint. Frilly edges and lots of leaves take considerably more time. I’ve got my painting time down to about 4 hours per painting on average. I haven’t gone under this too much but I have gone over on quite a few. Then I quickly photograph it with my phone, upload those photos to my computer.

My next step is to post a photo on Instagram to get that going. Posting everyday on Instagram has gotten more attention to my paintings, but I do wish more people were the buying kind. Maybe because I forget to put a price on it because of my hurry, what do you think? I know I hate to have to ask what a price is and maybe this is the case or perhaps potential buyers aren’t aware they are for sale or maybe even the right buyers aren’t seeing it because I have got the wrong tags on it. There is so much to this selling online it’s unreal… and super time consuming.

So after Instagram, I tag my photos in my Photos program on my iMac. I export them into Photoshop and edit there. Then, I save the photos I want to have in my post to a folder and begin my blog post. I’m using WordPress with more plugins than I’d like so it seems everyday there are plugins to update. You can’t just update them all and hope for the best, you need to do one at a time then go into your site on various pages to make sure something didn’t “break” when you updated the plugin.

Writing is the next step I take and I tend to be long winded. I like to try and make Yoast happy, so there are many hoops I must jump through to make that happen. For those who don’t know what Yoast is, it’s a plugin designed to help me with SEO and getting found on the internet. After writing my post, placing the correct photos in their spots and proofreading it all several times, I hold my breath and hit “Publish”. Doesn’t all of this sound like a lot of work? That’s because it is!

Oh sometimes (often) I long for the simple days of no internet and no cell phones but that’s another blog post in itself.

By the time my son gets off the bus at 3:45 I’m sitting at my computer in a rush to finish everything in time to make dinner. Such is the life of an artist. We spend more time marketing our art than making it due to necessity. If no one sees the art, it won’t get to go to new homes.

Back to my Mexican Petunias.

I think they turned out kinda nice. The background is dramatic and sets off the purple and green. Here’s some work in progress shots.

Last night while in bed, I got a text from a friend wanting yesterdays painting, so I sold that one. Yay! It will have great new home.

Today’s painting of the Mexican Petunias are available here for purchase.

Thanks for stopping by. Below is the same information I post on each painting post during this challenge to explain it to new visitors.

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 blog posts of the paintings I’ve painted during this challenge here or see the paintings ganged up on my Paintings Archive Page. Thanks for stopping by.

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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!