Day One of 2011: January 1, Saturday

It's been almost exactly a year since I started this blog. I started it because of the Karin Jurick Portrait Thank You Project which was so much fun. And then Karin just won the painting of the year award from Katherine Tyrell via the web site: Making a Mark - an excellent, if not the best, blog all about art. Karin's wonderful painting 'Hands of Time' was given the "Best Picture of the Year on an Art Blog" award. I figure that for an outstanding accomplishment.

If you haven't been following Karin's 100 daily faces project, each face painted from a mug shot, they're fantastic and the whole series of 100 was presold after the first 3 or 4 were displayed on her blog. These magnificent pieces are only 4" x 4" - unbelievable detail in such a small space.
My goal is to once again post daily on this blog. There's a national project looming over my head: The Sketchbook Project which has to be postmarked by January 15. I read on a blog this morning that procrastination is considered a big part of an art project, that thinking about the project counts. Ergo: I'm still procrastinating.  I did get my studio (my son's bedroom) cleaned up today with everything once again set up after a long hiatus (haven't painted since October 1 when we left for a long trip to France with our adult son and daughter).

There's also a separate watercolor show (Valley Watercolor Society in Los Angeles county) that I'm trying to enter using one or two of the portraits I've painted in the last six months. I asked Carol Marine for permission to use her photograph if I get the painting finished in time. I've always thought her photo on her blog shows a joyous face, one who loves to paint!  She's one of the most faithful of the Painting a Day Group.