Merry Christmas!

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"Ready for the New Year"

Oil, 11" x 14"

Sold!

Merry Christmas! My Twelve Days of Christmas giveaway has come to a close and I want to thank each of you who joined me in celebrating the holidays these past 12 days. Yesterday we had over a hundred suggestions as to ways we can all give back and help our fellow artists in the coming year. I will be sharing many of these wonderful ideas on next week's "Artists Helping Artists" show. 

Don't forget I am hosting the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge in January!  If you would like to participate in the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge you can sign up here on my blog. Be ready to post your first painting on January 1st right here on my blog. Please be sure to sign up to receive my Daily blog posts as well so you don't miss anything! So far we have 203 artists signed up for the Challenge.

The winner of the final giveaway (which is the painting pictured above) is Shannon Celia! Congratulations! Email me so we can finalize all of the details and I can get figure out how to get the painting to you. 

Finally, for those of you that participated in the Twelve Days of Christmas, there was a reason behind every "request" you had to do to participate. I tried really hard to get all of your artwork shown and publicized on my blog. I also hope that the comments you made on my blog were a great catalyst for getting ready for 2014.  For those of you that went back and found a favorite painting or blog post, make a mental note of what you liked! Try to incorporate everything you saw and liked in to your own artwork. Most importantly, take one of the suggestions as to how you can help your fellow artists and make a point to incorporate it in to your plans for 2014. We all need to give back and help our fellow artists.

Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. And thanks for making my life so complete!

Leslie

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I am now teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 12

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It's hard to believe tomorrow is the last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas giveaway. This has been a lot of fun and thank you to the hundreds of you that have participated in the fun. 

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed all of your stories about Christmas traditions. There were so many  traditions that I absolutely loved! Our family has many holiday traditions ... our Christmas party, the boys playing hide and go seek at the Christmas tree lot, watching the Citrus Singers, piling in the car in our jammies on Christmas Eve to see the lights on St. Albans, Dave reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" on the night before Christmas and making my mom's Overnight Sausage Casserole on Christmas morning. All of these traditions were started in our family many years ago and hold strong ever year. Our boys may be taller and older but these special moments will be with us forever. Thanks to each of you for sharing so many wonderful stories. 

The winner of the 11th Day Giveaway is Paula Riley. Paula is the winner of one of my cookbooks. There aren't many copies out there so I hope you will enjoy it! Send me your address and I will mail it to you. I just ordered some cookbooks and they will be here in mid-January.

The 12th Day giveaway prize is one of my original oil paintings.

"Ready for the New Year"

Oil, 11" x 14"

It is featured here and it is an 11" x 14" oil painting. I will frame it and of course ship it to the winner. If you would like to have a chance to win the painting, my request is simple. I am a true believer that as artists we all need to think about giving back. We need to do everything we can to help our fellow artists.  That's why my radio show is named "Artists Helping Artists".

I am looking for suggestions as to how we can all help our fellow artists. So to be eligible for the final giveaway leave your suggestions here. What do you think is a great way to help a fellow artist? Share your ideas on my blog or on any of my facebook pages. And you are welcome to make as many suggestions as you want if you would like to increase your chances to win. The winner will be announced on Christmas Day.

Check out my remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I am now teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 11

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Wow, only one day until my Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway is over! I can't believe it. And, I survived our party. Now that's good news! I can't wait to get in my studio and start painting again.

Some of you may have heard that I am doing another "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge. It starts on January 1st and all of you are invited to join me! We are going to paint 30 paintings in 30 days and you can post your painting on my blog if you choose to participate. It will be fun and it is a fantastic way to start of the new year. I think it's a great chance to try some new things and also get in the habit of painting more often. Think about it. Give it a try. What's the worst thing that can happen? Perhaps you paint 15 paintings and after 15 days you can't continue. At least you will have painted 15! 

Some of you may want to decide on a theme for your thirty paintings. That's great. You can also  choose a size and paint that size every day. Or paint 30 value studies. Maybe you will paint 30 larger versions of paintings you have already done. Or paint 30 paintings that each represent a month of the year (then you can print a 2014 calendar right away!) Maybe you want to paint the same painting but just vary it each day. It's up to you! Just make sure you are ready by the first day of January ...

Today's giveaway is your own personal copy of my cookbook!

It's titled "Old, New, Borrowed and blue" and it has every single one of my favorite recipes. Every item that I serve at our Christmas party is in the cookbook and I promise, you will love it!

To qualify for the 11th Day Giveaway all you need to do is share your favorite holiday tradition. Share them here or on my Facebook page. I can't wait to read your stories!

The winner of the Day 10 free workshop giveaway is Cindy Stierhoff. Congrats! Be sure to email me  so we can get you all signed up for one of my workshops.

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I am now teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 10

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Thank you so much for all of your very inspiring comments about "why you love being an artist". Sometimes we need to stop and think about how lucky we are to be able to create and enjoy the wonderful lifestyle of an artist! I hope this reflection has helped to reinforce why you have chosen this wonderful profession, regardless if you are doing it full or part-time.

The winner of Day 9 of the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway is Kathryn King. You have won a $100 gift certificate. Just email me and we will make arrangements to to figure out how you would like to spend it!

The Day 10 giveaway is one of my painting workshops at the Carriage House in South Pasadena. It's a $399 value and can be used to attend one of my three day workshops which includes a gourmet dinner cooked by yours truly. 

To be eligible for the giveaway, all you have to do is post a response to the following question: "I am most thankful for ...". Your question can pertain to anything you want! You can post your comment here or on any of my Facebook pages. 

Take a look at my remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I am now teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 9

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Wow. If you ever needed any tips to organize you life, office or studio then you might want to head on over and read the nearly 100 posts on my blog from yesterday's giveaway. There are so many great ideas! And to think I thought I was organized. Apparently I am not even close. I can't tell you how much I appreciate sharing all of these great tips! Thank you.

The winner of the 12 Days of Christmas Day Eight Giveaway is Nancy Laliberte.  One of you mentioned that you thought I would award the giveaway to the person with the best organizational tip. But that is not the case as all of the winners are selected at random. I use random.org and the computer actually selects the winner. So congrats Nancy! Email me and we will set up your free consultation.

The Day Nine Giveaway is a $100 gift certificate towards one of my paintings or any of the merchandise featured on my website (I am sorry it doesn't apply to my workshops). To qualify for the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a post on this blog or my Facebook pages answering the following question.

"I love being an artist because ...".

Dig deep, and take a moment to think about why we are so blessed to be artists. And enjoy your day! 

I have been cooking for weeks for our annual holiday party which is tonight. I have made enough food for over 200 people. My menu is ridiculous ... twenty-four appetizers (including smoked turkey, shrimp, smoked salmon, chicken, steak and ahi) and six desserts. I actually have an excel document that breaks down the preparation of every food item into steps.  It is color coded reminding me what has to be cooked that day. The grid is set up for the 14 days prior to the party. And believe it or not, I am on schedule!!!!

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I am now teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 8

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If you haven't figured it out by now, there is a method to my madness in asking you to do certain things to be eligible for my 12 Days of Christmas giveaway. Most of them are to prepare you to get ready for 2104. By having to go back and decide on your favorite painting for this past year, I am hoping the process will lead to some good things for 2014. The same goes for having you choose your greatest success, biggest marketing challenge and suggest a topic for the AHA show. I am hoping the process you had to go through to identify these things will help you with your goals for next year.

The Artists Helping Artists radio show today was titled "Getting Ready for 2014". I thought the show was excellent and I suggest you try to listen to it as it does relate to some of the things we have done here. Click here to listen to the show.

The winner for the 12 Days of Christmas Day Seven giveaway is Dawn Kinney Martin. Congrats on winning a set of 20 notecards. Email me with your address so I can send them off to you later this week. I hope you all read the great APPs that were mentioned on my blog yesterday. I can't wait to try some of them out.

Keeping in the AHA spirit, to be eligible for the 12 Days of Christmas Day 8 giveaway, all you need to do is share something you do to stay organized. This "tip" can occur in your studio, your office, your computer or when you are painting plein air. Just think of a tip, website or great tool you use that helps you stay organized. I can't tell you how much these ideas will help every single one of us! I will be forever grateful.

The giveaway is the most expensive one yet ... another Private Marketing Consultation. It's a pretty cool service I offer that's valued at $250.00.  If you want to learn more about what happens in one of my marketing consultations, just go here. So, start thinking about those organizational tips. Post them here on my blog or either of my Facebook pages. Thanks!

Visit my remodel blog if you would like to see our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I am now teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 7

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Yesterday's blog posts were all about selling your art. I asked all of you to identify the biggest marketing challenge you face as an artist. The response was amazing! Many of you want help with identifying your style, getting in to galleries, pricing, building a better website and just balancing marketing and painting at the same time.

I have tried really hard these past few years to answer many of your marketing questions through the Artists Helping Artists show. But I realized earlier this year there was a need for more detailed information. That's why I created webinARTs to show you EXACTLY how to do all of this "marketing stuff". 

I posted this question on yesterday's giveaway post because I wanted to get an even better understanding of what artists need to help make them more successful. I am currently updating the webinARTs class as software updates necessitate this to happen often. The first new course starts in April 2014. So mark your calendars and plan to sign up! All of your comments will also help to  determine show topics for the AHA show.  So thank you for sharing and I am going to do everything I can to help all of you!

I am not trying to push webinARTs on any of you. It's just that I believe it is a really great resource. All of the information is there to create a website, better blog, manage all of your Facebook pages and build a client list. And you have access to it for a year. As a way to say thank you for helping me I have created a discount code to save $20.00 off the April class. Use "save20" at registration to redeem this discount. This offer is only available to the first 25 people who register for the course! Visit the webinARTs website to learn morea nd register!

Now ... The winner of the Day Six Giveaway is Rosie Phillips. Rosie has won the April one month webinARTs course. Just email me and I will get you all signed up for the course. Congrats!

Today's giveaway is a set of 20 of my notecards (valued at $60). To be eligible for the giveaway, all you have to do is tell us about your favorite App! I love sharing information with students in my workshops and app are a great resource. My two favorite apps are Houzz and Waze. Houzz was a very helpful tool for our beach house remodel this summer. And Waze is the best app for navigation and traffic. It's free and everyone should use it!

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I am now teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

12 Days of Christmas - Day Six

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I loved all of the posts today highlighting all your art successes this year. It's so great to read all of the great accomplishments so many of you have achieved. And, hopefully most of you have figured out that taking the time to think about your year to recognize your accomplishments is a great experience. I hope you enjoyed the process!

The winner of my calendar for the Day Five Giveaway is Jacquelyn Fox. Just email me your address and I will send it off to you later this week!

The Day Six Giveaway is another free month long webinARTs course valued at $179.00. The new Marketing 101 course will launch in April 2014 with all new videos! The course consists of 20 on-line classes and all of the students have access to a private class blog (with almost 80 videos) for a year.

To be eligible for this giveaway I would like to get your input about marketing your art. I'd like to know what areas in marketing you would like to know more about. Is it your website, blog or Facebook you would like more information? Is it getting in to galleries ... pricing your art ... or building your client list? Give it some thought and post on my blog what you think is the most important marketing need for you, as an artist. I'd really appreciate your input. One of you will win the free webinARTs class for giving me your input. Thank you!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops. I have space in my workshop this January 14th - 16th in South Pasadena. We will be spending a lot of time talking about your art career and what you can do to have a very successful 2014!

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I am now teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

The 12 Days of Christmas - Day 5

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I am stunned with the response to my 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway. I am so inspired by your paintings from Day 1, your studio tips on Day 2, the artists that inspire you most on Day 3, and your awesome ideas for an AHA show on Day 4. If you have missed any of these be sure and go to my blog posts and check out all of this wonderful information. I love the fact that we are sharing resources and I think today's posts will continue to inspire us all! Plus it's always fun to giveaway stuff!

First off, I need to announce the winner of the Day Four 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway. Congratulations to Meredith Alder who was the winner of the Marketing Consultation! Just email me Meredith and we will get you all set up. Thanks to everyone for submitting over 100 ideas for show topics for the AHA radio shopw. I am set!

Today's giveaway is one of my 2014 Calendars. It's a wall calendar and features 12 of my paintings.

All you have to do to be eligible for this prize is to share here on my blog (or on my facebook page) what you consider to be your greatest accomplishment this year. Ideally, I am hoping it will be related to your art career, but we will see!

Finally, if you went to the trouble on Day 1 and 2 to select a photo of your favorite painting and your studio, be sure to post these photos on Facebook, your blog and your website. Photos are a great way to tell your followers more about you and your art!

Check out my upcoming palette knife painting workshops. I have space in my workshop this January 14th - 16th in South Pasadena. 

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I am now teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

The 12 Days of Christmas - Day 4

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Wow ... it's been wonderful reading about all of the artists that inspired so many of you. There are a lot of artists mentioned that I know very well. And I love the fact there are so many others that I do not know. Clicking on the links of all of the artists is like Christmas! I can't wait to spend more time following the links and getting to know many of these new names. Thanks so much for sharing! 

The winner of the Day Three Giveaway which is a webinARTS month long class is Lynette Smith. Email me your contact information and I will get you all signed up for the April 2014 class!

Today's giveaway is a free one hour marketing consultation. (The value is $250!). It's easy to become eligible for the giveaway. All you have to do is leave a suggestion here (or on my Facebook page) of a topic for the Artists Helping Artists radio show! Every month I struggle to come up with topics for the show so your input would be greatly appreciated!

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I am now teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

The 12 Days of Christmas - Day 3

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I really enjoyed all of your "studio tips". There were over 100 posted on my blog and disqus! I have even added a few of the cool ideas to my Christmas list! 

The winner of the Day 2 Giveaway panel holder is Susan Johnson. Congrats! Be sure to email me with your mailing address. 

Today I am pleased to announce that the free giveaway is a one month long webinARTs course. The winner gets to take the all new WebinARTs 2014 Marketing course. So many things have changed since I launched the first class that I have redone the entire class! All of the videos are new and I am so excited. The class will be launched on April 1, 2014. 

This giveaway is valued at $179.00. If you don't know about the course, it's an on-line 20-day course that shows artists exactly how to build a better website, blog, newsletter and sell art on Facebook. 

To be eligible for the Day Three Giveaway all you need to do is leave a comment here (or on my Facebook pages) telling us about an artist that you admire. Perhaps you love an artist's art, teaching style or daily blog posts. Just let us know. And be sure to include a link to their website so we can learn more.

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I am now teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

The 12 Days of Christmas - Day 2

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I am so happy it's another day and I get to give something away!

What a joy it was to visit my blog all day yesterday and see so many BEAUTIFUL paintings posted by all of you! There are so many talented artists out there and thank you for sharing your art! I can't think of a better gift for the holidays than a piece of original art. So think seriously about painting, giving or buying a piece of original art. Of course if you would like to see some beautiful paintings, check out all of the wonderful artwork on yesterday's blog post. There are tons paintings posted and I promise you all of these amazing artists have artwork for sale.

I picked yesterday's winner by using www.random.org. It's so simple, as you just type in the number of entries and the website picks the winner. The lucky winner of the custom embroidered Artists Helping Artists apron is Barbara Hayden. Congratulations! Please email me your choice of a white or black apron, the name for monogramming and your mailing address.

The giveaway for the "2nd Day of Christmas" is a panel holder, and it's one of the most important tools in my studio. It holds any panel size up to 12" tall. The best news ... it weights about two pounds! It's valued at nearly $50.00.

And speaking of studios, to be eligible for this giveaway all you need to do to is post here on my blog a great studio tip (or tool) that you think other artists might like to know about.  I have a feeling there will be some great ideas here (and potential holiday gift ideas!). 

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. This fall I began teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. 

 Click here for more information!

The 12 Days of Christmas - Day 1

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Day One!

Giving gifts during the holidays is one of my favorite things to do. Just ask any of my family members and they will gladly share a long list of the homemade, mostly "nice" gifts that I gave out every Christmas. Over the years there were some duds and quite a few that were given when "still unfinished"! It's time to continue my holiday tradition of gift giving!

The Day One giveaway is an AHA embroidered apron. The lucky winner can pick either white or black and I will embroider your first name on the apron!

To be eligible for the Day One prize, all you have to do is click below and add a photo of one of YOUR paintings that you consider is your most favorite from 2013! If you are not an artist feel free to upload any painting that you love! Just click the "Add Your Link" Button. You can link to a painting on your website or you can upload a photo. Have fun! This is my chance to say thank you by showing off YOUR ART to my friends!

Be sure and sign up to receive my blog updates so you will be the first to know about the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways!

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. This fall I began teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

The Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway Starts Friday!

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It's that time of the year again!

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is my favorite time of the year. It's my chance to say thank you to all of you for supporting me, my art, the Artists Helping Artists Radio Show and my workshops. It's my chance to give back. For twelve straight days I will be giving away prizes (which are valued at over $3000.00). There's no catch, it's just free stuff. Everyday for twelve days. And you can enter everyday and win more than once, so don't be shy!

I will ask you to complete small task each day to be eligible for the prize. This year you will even have a chance to post on this blog, so stay tuned to see some really great things shared right here by all of my art friends!

The contest starts Friday, December 13th and continues with the last giveaway on Christmas Eve. Be sure to make sure you are receiving my daily updates of this blog so you don't miss anything.

Happy Holidays! Enjoy.

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. Beginning this fall I will be teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Carmel, Indiana, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

Get Ready for the January 2014 "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge!

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I know you are all swamped with the holidays. 

But you need to take a moment and consider joining me for the 30 in 30 Challenge in January. 

I did it twice last year and it changed my art career. You should too.

It's really easy to join the Challenge.

The January 2014 30 in 30 Challenge is very simple and easy ... all you need to do is paint 30 paintings in 30 days. You can post your paintings daily here on my blog to share and I hope my blog will offer encouragement for those of you who might fall behind, need inspiration or have no idea what to paint!

I am doing this challenge for a lot of reasons. Personally, I need to paint more so I know this challenge will get me in my studio every day. I also firmly believe that if you paint more regularly you will improve your painting skills in dramatically. I am sharing this with you because the 30 Day Challenge last January and September were awesome.

So, what do you need to do to accept this challenge and stay on track? Well, here are my steps ...

1. Post a link to your blog (or website) below to say officially that you are in.

2. Make a commitment to yourself to enter this challenge and understand there may be days when you need to paint more than one painting to "get ahead" or "catch up".

3. Understand there are no real rules for this challenge. If you miss a day, then paint two the next day. If you fall behind, please stay in the challenge! No one is counting how many paintings you have completed (except you), I promise. The only rule is that you must have fun and enjoy the process.

4. Tell your art friends about this challenge and get them to join in so you can share your experiences with your art buddies.

5. Decide in advance on what you want to paint for the month. You might select a theme (such as painting still life, reflections, glass, flowers, landscapes, value studies, portraits, etc.) or a particular size or different medium. I do suggest you paint fairly small as a painting a day is a big commitment.

6. Get organized. Go through your photos and pick at least the first week of inspiration or plan out your plein air locations in advance. Check your supplies to make sure you have enough canvas(es) for at least the first week. 

7. Spend an hour organizing your painting area. If you studio looks like mine (and is full of stuff), a bit of organization is a good thing.

8. Tell your friends and family you are doing this. They can provide great support.

9. Blog about it. Be sure to upload your daily painting on your blog and put it on your blog and website. Talk about the experience, what you are learning and the fun you are having. Be sure to include prices (and please charge a price that makes it worth your while ... paintings listed too cheap seem too cheap) and an easy way for someone to buy your paintings (i.e. buy now buttons ...). Then share it also on Facebook.

10. Post your daily painting on my blog and include a link to the page on your blog featuring that painting. I am hoping the visibility here will help you sell your paintings! Who knows. 

11. And most importantly, have fun. If you get behind no one will notice. If you do paint all 30 paintings then you will know you accomplished an amazing goal and have completed our "Start of the Year" Challenge with a bang. If you reach some hurdles, talk about it on my blog as all of us are here to help. We will support each other, I promise.

This is going to be fun. The Challenge officially starts on January 1st.

Leslie

If you are "in" then add a link to your blog (or website) here.

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

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. I have already started teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

A Fun Day Painting "Gifts"

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Earlier this week I was lucky enough to be able to teach a workshop with nine wonderful artists. We painted "gift boxes" and it was so much fun! I love that each artist took my inspiration photo and created their own design! Here is mine:

My demo painting. 

On the second say of the workshop we spent all day creating websites! It is so incredible to me that each artist left at 4:00 with their own art website!

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. Beginning in December I will be teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

Catching Up

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So many things have happened in the last 30 days and I can't believe I have finally caught up!
The beach house remodel is done and I love it. I am thrilled. If you want to see photos you can visit my blog here.

I have been painting all month for my show at Debra Huse Gallery which opened last Friday Night. Thanks to everyone who came to the opening! Every painting in the show has a QR code on the tag whcih, when scanned with your smart phone, takes you to a demo of yours truly painintg the painting! My paintings will be on display all month so feel free to contact the gallery for more information.

I also taught three workshops this past month in South Pasadena, Newport Beach and Charlotte, NC. I met so many amazing artists and had so much fun. How could teaching workshops possibly be considered work??

I am also teaching a one day website class next Tuesday, November 19th. It's at my house. All you need is a laptop and about 10 pictures of your art on a thumb drive or on your computer. By the time you leave, you will have a new website. I promise! Click here for more information.

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. Beginning this December I will be teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Carmel, Indiana, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

Thirty Days of Paintings

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Here is my "collage" of the 30 paintings I completed in September. I created it with an on-line program called picmonkey. Just go to PicMonkey and select "create a collage". You can use one of their designs or you can design your own. To make a collage with 30 photos you will need to design your own. Then you can drag your uploaded photos in to the collage until you are done. (When you drag them, you can see where to place the photos as you move them around.)

It's a fun tool to use. You can change the width and color of the grid lines between the photos and then save the completed collage as a jpeg on your computer. Post your collages here! And it doesn't matter how many paintings you completed. Create a collage to show off the paintings you created this month.

I won't be able to paint for rest of the week because we are moving in to the beach house. It's almost done ... it's getting there ... and I have my fingers crossed it will be "close enough to done" for my eight girlfriends to enjoy this weekend! I will post the photos of the completed house on Friday or Saturday so be sure to check back for the updates!

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. Beginning this fall I will be teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Carmel, Indiana, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

30 in 30, Day Thirty!!!

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"Fall Waters"

Oil, 8" x 8" on canvas panel.

$350.00 with display easel.

Day 30. Holy smokes. We did it. 

There were many times this month when I thought this day would never come. And now it's here and I am sad. I am going to miss the pressure of finishing my painting every day. 

I have thought long and hard about what was my favorite part of this month's challenge. Aside from painting every day, it has to be all of the awesome notes and emails I have received from all of you! It is funny how so many of you think I had something to do with the fact that you have painted so much this month! All I did was create the forum. That's it! You are the ones who painted everyday. I don't get the credit. YOU DO!!

Technically the challenge is over for now. But we all know, of course it's really just the beginning. 

This is the time for all of us to build upon what we have accomplished this month. Whether you painted five or thirty paintings, it doesn't matter. We have all learned something from painting more often, from blogging everyday and sharing our art on Facebook. The results have snowballed and have been amazing. Many of you told me that you have already blogged more times this month than the entire  year. Most of you have found a way to leave "the stuff" behind so when you enter your studio it's all about painting. A lot of you are painting faster and having little trouble finding inspiration to paint. It's been a great 30 days and I thank you all for joining and inspiring me to paint every day this month.

Tomorrow we will head back in to our studios and paint some more. We will continue to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and take some risks. We don't need to feel rushed and we don't need to ignore our families anymore (haha). Just paint what you want, but take a little more time to build on the momentum you have created these past few weeks. 

I promise we will do another 30 in 30 Challenge in January 2014. In the meantime I will be busy painting and teaching and enjoying the beach house (our "moving in" day is this Thursday!)

Tomorrow I will post a collage of all of my 30 paintings. I will also post instructions as to how you can create one too. So be sure to check back tomorrow.  So, you are not finished with me yet!

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. Beginning this fall I will be teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Carmel, Indiana, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

30 in 30, Day Twenty-nine

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"The Pavilion"

Oil, 12" x 12" on canvas panel.

Sold.

There is only one more day left in the Challenge and I have no idea what to paint for my last painting! I am pretty sure it will be a boat painting as I haven't painted a lot of boats this month and I miss them!

I hope you all have enjoyed the Challenge and I would like to thank you all for joining me, for keeping me motivated and for your wonderful emails, messages and comments throughout the month.
Even if you haven't been able to paint everyday, try to join in and paint (and post!) a painting for Day #30!

I spent most of today at my sewing machine. Most of my time was spent putting in 11 zippers. Can you guess what I am making??? Tomorrow morning I am driving a small truckload of furniture to the beach house. It's our "first delivery" of lots of stuff that will be heading up there this week. I will have another small truck load on Thursday with a full car load every day this week too! I cannot believe we are getting so close!

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. Beginning this fall I will be teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Carmel, Indiana, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

30 in 30, Day Twenty-eight

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"All Blown Up"

Oil, 6" x 6" 

$200.00 with display easel.

Click here to purchase. 

I got a text from one of my boys yesterday that said. "So what's up with the abstracts?". I think this could be translated as "Mom, are you crazy? Get back to painting regular stuff!".

So I am back to the "regular stuff". I do need to say that I really enjoyed my short "abstract painting stage" and I believe painting outside of your comfort zone and trying new things is a very important step in an artist's development. So I had fun and am thrilled I have some paintings for the beach house that I really like!

There are two more days left in the 30 in 30 Challenge. How happy are we? Yippee!

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. Beginning this fall I will be teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Carmel, Indiana, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

30 in 30, Day Twenty-seven

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"Fall at the Beach"

Acrylic, 24" x 24"

NFS.

We are getting so close to the end of the 30 in 30 Challenge! I am still having fun with abstract painting. This one is a work in progress, but I love the large size and palette knife strokes! I hope you are enjoying painting as much as I am!

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. Beginning this fall I will be teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Carmel, Indiana, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

30 in 30, Day Twenty-six

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"Yellow Reflections"

Oil, 8" x 16" on canvas panel.

Sold (commission).

It was fun to get back to painting boats after a few days of abstracts. One of my kids posted on my Facebook page yesterday stating "I think I could paint that". I laughed at the comment because I am guilty of thinking the same thing about some of the abstract paintings I have seen over time. Of course, now that I have made an attempt at painting abstracts I realize how ridiculous my son's comment (and mine) actually was.

I am still contemplating adding all of the words to yesterday's painting and I think it will be a go! As my sister in law so pointedly stated, "you can always paint over it". So if it doesn't work, then I will just paint over it.

I hope you all are enjoying the 30 Day Challenge as much as I am. It's been fun and we are almost done! I have the radio show today and then I am back to making pillows for the beach house. We move in a week from today (yeah!!!) and I still have a lot to do!


Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. Beginning this fall I will be teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Carmel, Indiana, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

30 in 30, Day Twenty-five

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A Day at the Beach

36" x 48"

Acrylic on stretched canvas.

NFS.

We are really nearing the end of the 30 Day Challenge. I have mixed emotions as the month has been both amazing and challenging. (That's a good thing, right?) I fully intend to continue painting close to this pace next month. But there is something nice about not having the PRESSURE to paint every day. I also think I will be able to sleep more. And that's a good thing.

Today's painting is another one for the beach house. It's big, as in 48" x 36". I am contemplating taking this painting one step further. I would like to hand stamp words on the painting that have to do with our family (such as names of streets we have lived on, colleges, sports, etc.). I already have a list of all of the words, I am just not sure how it would look. It would be a fun surprise for my boys so I will probably do it. If I decide to try it, it will be a project for Friday.

Tonight I framed all of the Beach Boys album covers I bought on ebay and at antique stores. They look great and will be fun art for the walls in the beach house. I am not exactly sure where they will hang but I will find a place.

Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. Beginning this fall I will be teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Carmel, Indiana, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!

30 in 30, Day Twenty-four

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"Along the Coast"

Acrylic, 24" x 26"

NFS.

It's sure wonderful to be home. I think I will be happier in two weeks when technically my "other house" remodel will be done. I say "technically" because of course it won't really be completely done. But we will be close! At least we will be moved in which means all of the stuff for the "other house" will no longer be in every room of our house!

Yesterday I made the decision to delay the stain and sanding of the floors until after my girl's weekend. They are behind and if we tried to get the floors completely done in the next 13 days then there is no way the rest of the house would be done. Tomorrow is a big day as counter tops, appliances, mantle, bathrooms and tons of other stuff will be finished. At least I really hope it's finished. Furniture and "a household worth of stuff" is confirmed for delivery a week from Thursday. I can't wait.

I started painting some abstract paintings for the Beach House. I thought it would be fun to mix it up a bit. So this one. titled "Along the Coast" is going to Ventura Beach!


Check out my new remodel blog for our new beach house in Ventura, Ca. Beginning this fall I will be teaching workshops at the beach. Come stay and paint with me! I have workshops scheduled in the next twelve months in South Pasadena, Ventura Beach, Newport Beach, Carmel, Indiana, Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, Ga. Click here for more information!