Now that we’re into the third year of the painting a day, here’s a few of the ones I’ve done so far.
Year 3 of a painting a day
Another year
It’s the first day of Spring.
Time flies.
I cannot grasp that a second year of the Painting a Day challenge has passed, and I painted a painting for each day, along with 3 bonus paintings.
I certainly missed a few days. I had two trips outside for medical appointments and didn’t paint the 4 days I was out. However, I also had a residency where I did quite a few paintings. The end result is yet another year of paintings.
With the end of Year 1, I thought I might paint a few different topics. I did paint a few Cape Breton pictures, as well as two Irish scenes.
So, now on to another year. Again, I’m not sure if I will keep going, since I do occasionally think that I am doing a painting for the sake of painting rather than doing a specific scene because I really want to. I do need to plan a few painting trips and I have applied for two residencies so, like in everything else, we’ll see.
February and March paintings
There’s a few things to note.
First, I am still knee deep in the painting a day challenge. The second year has about 2 more weeks left.
Painting sales did slow down a bit, although they weren’t wild and woolly last February, either. However, I did sell three in the last two weeks so things may be picking up a bit.
I have a showing coming up in October. One of the shops in town will be exhibiting some of my paintings. More news on that later.
And, of course, there are some more paintings to show.
More winter paintings
I did a little count and my streak of painting winter scenes is now at 31 days. Here are a few more of my winter scenes.
Embracing winter
When painting, I have made it a point to avoid doing winter scenes. I didn’t get a handle on painting the winter at first. And, while I don’t hate the season, per se, it harder to deal with the pandemic a bit more than it is in the mid-summer and who doesn’t want to think more of summer.
But, I have decided to jump into the winter scene, so to speak, in the last while. I have made an effort concentrate on winter scenes lately and am trying to put together a small show of winter paintings. Here are some of the winter scenes from the last two months.
Three of these are not Yukon/BC/Alaska scenes. One is loosely based on a tutorial from my Facebook painting group (Art by Paul Clark ) and two others are based on photos posted as challenges from the same group and I don’t know exactly where in the UK they’re from.
A few more
I put the last post up in a hurry, so here are a few more of my paintings from the residency.
Little Atlin Lake 
Mount White 
Sunset, Mount White
My first residency
I finished my first painting residency today, the Yukon Fresh Artist in Residence Exchange. It was 10 days of painting and workshops in variety of subjects.
I completed 18 paintings, and liked most of them. I did one workshop, teaching introductory watercolours to 7 students. All told, it was a great 10 days, although it did have a rocky start. I was going to stay in my camper, but it developed some mechanical issues on the way back from Fox Lake and I can’t get in into the shop until next week. My daughter and son-in-law offered their travel trailer for the residency, saving me from 10 days in a tent. I’d have to buy one, at that, since my little pup tent isn’t really a choice.
So here are some of the paintings I did. Most were local southern lakes scenes, including a few from up at the Tagish fire tower where the view is incredible.
Caribou Mountain 
Fall, Grey Mountain 
Sunrise, Kusawa Lake 
Little Atlin Lake 
Million Dollar Falls 
Mount Lorne, Tagish River 
Northern Lights 
Windy Arm
A big number
I started the painting a day thing last March. As I mentioned previously, I wondered how long this would continue. Yesterday marked another milestone with painting of the day number 500.
I spent some time trying to pick what I would do for number 500. If nothing else, I wanted something I would like a lot more than the way number 300 turned out…
I was reminded of the first watercolour painting I did, which was a painting of a solstice sunset from Fox Lake campground in 2015. It turned out quite well for a first ever attempt, good enough that my grandson claimed it immediately. (I suggested he put it on his fridge…)
Therefore, having just come back from a camping trip to Fox Lake recently, I figured that I’d do another sunset from Fox Lake, So, here it is.
I have been having fun doing this on a daily basis, but it may be time to taper off a bit. If for nothing else, I am getting ready for a residency next week in Tagish and doing a workshop on Saturday, August 7th as part of the Yukon Fresh Artists in Residence Exchange. I’m looking forward to it, although I must admit that, after 30-odd years of teaching, it’s the first time teaching this subject and there may be a small case of nerves involved…
Recent paintings
I haven’t posted recently, so I figured I would throw a few recent paintings up. For statistics sake, the Picture of the Day is up to number 461.
Last flight of the day, Fox Lake 
Lapie River 
Mary Ann Falls, Cape Breton 
Milky Way, Haines Road 
Moonlight over Mount Krause 
Mount Cairnes 
Mount Haldane 
Northern Lights, Needle Monuntain 
Pedlar Brook waterfall, Cape Breton 
Pedlar Brook waterfall, Cape Breton 
Unnamed waterfall, Skagway Road
365 days… and counting
I started the painting a day thing on March 21st last year as a thing to do for the COVID lock down. It was something to do to keep me busy and give me a bit of something to focus on.
I wondered how long I could keep at it, considering I really only started painting a few months before.
There were a number of days I didn’t get one done. For example, there was a day when I started one, and gave up on it. At that point of the day, with an abscessed tooth and a bit of codeine, I wasn’t getting anything done.
I did put some effort into making up the days I missed, particularly in the last few days. And, this morning, I did the 365th painting to mark one year of a painting a day.
Given it is a bit of a milestone, I wondered what to paint. I decided this morning to consider how this started. My first painting of the day was three of the poplars in my yard. I figured I’d go with the theme and paint some of the other poplars. So here is the one year anniversary painting of the day.
Strangely, I feel a little bit sad about a year of this. It isn’t the end, since I am not going to quit painting, or even painting every day as it comes to it. And, we all knew this was going to last some time.
I do think I’m going to expand my repertoire a bit, since I was looking at an album of Cape Breton pictures. So, be prepared for a little different scenery (not like the Yukon has a shortage of scenery). I’m already planning a few painting trips for the summer.
So, on to year 2…
