Life After 30 - SOLD

"Stanford Daily"

Oil, 12" x 6" on museum quality panel

Sold.

Life after 30. Now that the Challenge is over I am thrilled that it doesn't seem as if it is over. But then again, its only been one day. Fortunately I still feel the need to head out to my studio every moment and paint. Thank heavens.

I read quite a few posts on Facebook today that many of you are continuing this challenge.  How cool is that? In truth, I think most of us are continuing the challenge too. We are just moving at a different pace. I am confident we will continue to paint everyday but I think we also take more time to paint. We'll paint bigger. And try lots of new things. 

For me, today was a big time catch-up day. I sat at my computer and worked on my ipad for most of the day. I use a wonderful financial program called Invoice2Go. It's very basic and all I have to do is create an invoice every time I receive a payment. That includes art sales, workshops, gallery commissions, studio supplies sales, aprons, merchandise sales, webinARTs classes or anything, (The invoices can also be emailed and paid through a link to paypal.)  Once the invoices are logged in then a bunch of awesome sales reports and graphs are automatically  created.  The program gives you sales details by client, by month, by year, by quarter and by just about everything.  My accountant was blown away. Me too!

One of my goals this year is to sit down on (or near) the first of every month and update the Invoice2Go program. For me this is quite a project and usually includes examining the usual hiding spots (including the pockets of my painting apron!) for a random check or two. The program also has a Receipts2Go component to keep track of your expenses. You enter the information and take a photo of the receipt (on your ipad or iphone) which is so cool! The only problem is every month I have to search my wallet, purse and the four "receipt bins" (that are stored in my studio, office, bedroom and car) for receipts. Fortunately I have the program on my laptop, ipad and iphone and it's all synched up.  It's amazing ... you should check it out.

Good news. I have been asked to be a guest panelist at the Plein Air Convention in Monterey this April. I'll be participating in a Social Media Forum and also spreading the word about the AHA show. I am very excited!

Feel free to post up to two paintings here on my blog this weekend. Be sure to include a link to the place on your website or blog where the painting can be purchased!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops at http://www.saetastudio.com/Leslie_Saeta_fine_Art/Workshops.html.