30 Day Challenge - Looking Back over the month

January 31st, 2015 and my first 30 Paintings in 30 Day Challenge is complete. I am proud to say I succeeded at a painting every day and must say it was a great thing to do. I felt liberated to experiment with abstract, steampunk, semi-abstract, and painting over paper I had textured ahead of time. I'm really happy with the results and so glad I have a bag of new tricks to use as I go forward.

I've met a number of new artists whom I consider great new friends and I count on staying in touch with you. I am grateful for Leslie Saeta for sponsored the challenge.

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The Alps - Day 30 of the #jan30in30 Challenge

The Alps by April M Rimpo

A couple days ago I was rummaging through the remaining panels I had prepared for the yoga series looking for the right one to use for the cactus wren when I saw this panel and immediately thought of the Alps. This may have happened since I have been looking through old pictures of a trip to Europe recently. One album included some images I had taken of Jungfraujoch from Interlaken, Switzerland. I set aside the panel thinking I'd have to get back to it before I was done with the 30 day challenge.

Well here we are on the LAST DAY of the challenge so it is time for The Alps. I wish I had remembered to photograph the panel before I started to transform it. I'd like you to know that I did not add the white snow as that was already there. It was fascinating that when I dug out the photograph and compared it with the panel that the mountains were almost perfect. Uncanny really. I tinted the sky, added the green hill in the foreground, and the brown middle-range cliff. 

The Alps

Fluid Acrylic on Varnished, Gallery Wrapped* Paper

8" X 8"

$160 when shipped within the United States**

It feels good to have successfully painting 30 paintings in 30 days.  I've never been a painting-a-day artist, but the challenge did stretch me and I think I'm a better artist as a result, having some new artistic tools to use.  Somehow it felt like a perfect time to experiment and try things out since if it failed all I lost was one day. 

Thanks to Leslie Saeta for the challenge, to the other artists who commented on my posts, and to friends who joined in on the fun providing me with encouragement. It was a long road for me and I suspect a long road for those of you reading my blog and my Facebook posts.  I'm sure I will still do some small one-day paintings scattered among my larger paintings, but the frequency will be much less.  I'm anxious to finish a large painting I've been working on for the last week in between all of these little gems.

* No framing required with gallery wrapped paintings

** Contact April if outside the United States to discuss shipping costs

#jan30in30  #ShopSmall

White Crane - Day 29 of the #jan30in30 Challenge

White Crane by April M Rimpo

White Crane is a rework of an older painting, originally titled "White Egret", but given its make-over I decided the new title was more appropriate, pun intended. My Apple Clock painting was so fun I decided to take a similar direction. Adding the gears, pistons, and paper wings were not the only changes.  While I was at it I added more pastel shades in the shadows and improved the contours of the bird. I think this make-over resulted in a better painting than I had before. If you ever feel you need to do something to improve a painting, don't be afraid to go way out of the box.

The image above shows the cropped painting after it has been gallery wrapped. The final painting will be 14" X 11" with a 1" gallery wrap depth.

White Crane

Fluid Acrylic and Watercolor

14" X 11" gallery wrapped and varnished paper

$375

Available for Purchase Here

I have to thank Leslie Saeta again for holding this challenge since I might not have tried this had I not had 28 prior days of experimentation under my belt. Go to her blog to see the other paintings done by all the artists participating in the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  #jan30in30