Poster of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

Here are all 30 paintings!  And I have a FREE GIFT for the first 20 who comment on this blog!  Just comment below stating your favorite painting of the 30 Day challenge, and then send me your mailing address OR email to: info@karenknutson.com   Do NOT put your email or mailing address on the comment below.  Congrats, you will get a FREE gift.)  When you comment, it won't appear till I approve it, so don't worry if you type it all out and it doesn't appear.  I'll approve them ASAP.   Thanks!
If you've been paying close attention, you'll notice that there is a new one in the mix.  Remember on Day 15, I said that I just grabbed a bird painting that I had already done a couple of months earlier?  Well, today, on the last day of the challenge, I finally made a replacement for that one.  It's up to you to find which one it is!  I honestly am feeling kind of odd now that the challenge is over.  Finally, I was in a kind of routine, painting another bird each day, and loving my time in my studio.  Luckily, I am going to a  5-day Paint-in on Sunday, and I'm anxious to paint abstracts again, in acrylic and mixed media.  That will keep me busy!  I really recommend that you all join me in this challenge next year.  I won't lie.  It's really HARD!  But it's so rewarding when you look at the gallery of paintings from the month!  I would advise that you should prepare meals, etc. ahead of time, and even have value sketches done of your subjects ahead of time.  That will help keep you sane during the experience.  I like to have a theme when I do this, but it's not mandatory.  Birds was a fun series!  One artist took all of her old paintings, and redid them for this challenge.  That might be a fun one for next year!  Another artist did all of her paintings on her i pad, which she barely knew how to do in the beginning.  She really improved by the end!  Whoever said that "Practice makes Perfect" was certainly right!  I did get better during this challenge.  Not perfect, by a long shot, but lots better!

Day 30 of "30 Paintings in 30 Days"

"Dancing the Night Away"  $145  watercolor, collage, acrylic  (11" x 11" image)

Yahoo!  I made it!  Day 30!  I wanted to finish with a special painting, so I decided to collage my wonderful city, Minneapolis, in the background.  And the crow looks like he is dancing, thus the title!  It's odd, but I'm really starting to like this color combination, and I had rarely used it before this challenge.  This painting goes with "Opening Act", #5 of this series.  I used the same napkin for collage and changed the design by painting with acrylic on top.  *Big tip for stripes to use for collage:  Save those pesky renewal postcards that come in new magazines.  The bar code can be cut up and used for collage.
So, what did I learn from this challenge?  1. How to simplify.  2. Limit colors  3.  Don't work so hard.  4.  Enjoy the PROCESS!  5.  I have a new appreciation for birds now. 
Maybe I'll become a birder!  Funny story:  My husband said that my last painting should be titled, "giving you the bird".  Sorry, I just had to include that.  :)   Dick has been an important part of this challenge.  He had great patience with a messy house, only 4 home cooked meals in January, and me spending most of my time in my studio.  He knows how important my painting is to me, so he's been very supportive, but we both are looking forward to more order in our lives.  And I look forward to doing this again, next January!  Thank you, Leslie Saeta, for organizing this challenge.  You all might enjoy looking at all the artist's work on her blog site.  Just click on her blog title, and span down the page.  Be sure to check back tomorrow, when I will post all 30 paintings together!  Most of these paintings have sold, but if you're interested in any, email me with your request.  I can paint commissions! 

Day 29: "30 Paintings in 30 Days"

"In the Pink!"  $145  Watercolor  (11" x 11" image"

Well, you knew it had to happen!  What's a bird collection without a flamingo?  Even when I saw this bird with my very own eyes, I could hardly believe that it wasn't a lawn ornament.  They stand on only one leg lots of times, and one would think that they would just topple over!  Such an odd bird, but actually, very beautiful!  After yesterday's painting being in neutrals, I was so ready to paint in bold bright colors!  So, here it is!  This isn't the best photo of it, since I finished at 10:00 p.m. and I took the photos under bad lighting.  I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of this challenge.  I'm stumped on what to paint.  Any guesses?  Thanks for visiting my blog.  Your comments mean so much to me!

Day 28- "30 Paintings in 30 Days"

"Love that Dove"  $145  Watercolor and Felt Markers,  (11" x 11" image)

Now I can relax.  The one bird that I really wanted to include in my bird series was a mourning dove.  It's probably my favorite bird.  I love it's gentleness and when it calls, I love it!  Beautiful sound!  We have a pair of mourning doves that land on our deck every Spring.  I love watching them.  In this painting, I challenged myself to staying with neutral colors, something that I usually don't do.  I usually LOVE color!  But today, because of the gentle nature of this bird, and the fact that it's feathers are different shades of grey, I decided on a neutral background. Then, I added lines at the very end, using Tombow markers, channeling another favorite, Frank Lloyd Wright.  I have the full set of 96 Tombow markers.  They work great for my 30 minute sketches- water soluble and double tipped.  I love them! 
I didn't realize until today, that mourning dove is spelled like this.  I always thought it was "Morning Dove".  I don't think of it's sound as mournful, but rather soothing.  I can't believe that I only have 2 more paintings to do in this challenge!  These last 2 weeks have been fun for me!

Day 27- "30 Paintings in 30 Days"

"Laundry Landing"  $145  Watercolor, collage, acrylic  (11" x 11" image)

Yesterday's Blue Jays were so popular, that I decided to paint another Blue Jay today.  It's -8 degrees outside, with all the schools closed, so I decided to paint blankets on the line, to add warmth to this painting.  I tore 2 different napkins in strips and collaged them do the blanket area.  Then, I painted with acrylic to create the quilted look.  I still love seeing laundry hanging on clotheslines.  It reminds me of my childhood on the ranch.  There's nothing like the smell of fresh sheets just brought in from the clothesline, don't you think? 

Day 26- "30 Paintings in 30 Days"

"Getting the Cold Shoulder"  $145  watercolor, acrylic, and collage  (11" x 11" image)

I actually finished this painting this morning, between 4:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m!  I babysat my grandsons all day yesterday, so I had to start my painting during nap time.  I knew I wanted to do Blue Jays, because they are one of my favorites.  Positioning them on the branch back to back, made me think that one of them was mad at the other, thus the title, "Getting the Cold Shoulder".  The outside border is composed of torn napkins, that I negative painted with acrylic to create my own design. I can't believe that there is only 4 days to go in this challenge.  I'm anxious about deciding which birds will be in those last 4 paintings.My favorite bird of all is probably the morning dove, so that will have to be one of them.  Keep tuned, and thank you so much for reading my blog, and making comments! 

Day 25 of "30 Paintings in 30 Days"

"The Hen Pecked Husband"  $145  watercolor and collage  (11" x 11" image)

This rooster hits me on so many levels.  First of all, I used a photo from a painting trip to France with Karlyn Holman.  Check out her schedule.  Her trips are so fun!!! My friend, Connie and I were taking a walk near the resort which was located in the country.  There were many chickens and roosters, but this guy was clearly in charge!  I took countless photos of all the chickens there.  Aw.....France, what a great trip that was!  I chose the name for this one, because I wanted it to be a mate for the painting that I did yesterday, and I have to say, I wondered if my husband would want it for his office. Now, I wouldn't call myself a nag, but when it comes to road trips, I have been known to pipe up a few times when Dick is driving. :)  I enjoyed painting this so much, that I may be painting a few more chickens this year.  They really do develop their own personalities as I paint them!

Day 24 of "30 Paintings in 30 Days"

"The Hen Pecker"  $145   watercolor and collage  (11" x 11" image)

Chickens have always fascinated me.  They have so many expressions that make them almost human.  I almost named this one, "Say what?"  but decided at the last minute that she is a bit of a nag, so I named it, "The Hen Pecker".  Tomorrow's painting is a rooster, so be sure to check back to see the companion piece for this one.  I love the feathers of this chicken.   I took this photo at a farm in Minnesota, where they had a big old truck that they had transformed into a flower garden.  Really cool place!   Wish I knew the breed of this chicken.   I'll bet my friend, Sarah Rosedahl would know. She wrote a whole book about chickens.  Click here to see it!  https://www.facebook.com/ChickenBreedsAtoZ

Day 23! 30 Paintings in 3o Days!

"All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go!"  $145   watercolor  (11" x 11" image)

This painting took longer to design than to paint.  I had this idea before this challenge even started, and so today is the day that the penguins were born!  I learned how to ribbon write in junior high at an art camp.  This brought back such good memories of that week.  I find myself almost hating for this 30 Day Challenge to be over.  I know, this is a totally different person than that person from about Day 6.  Click on this link and read how different I sounded!  I have several birds that I had planned to paint, and now, I'm really trying to get them all in before the 30 days is up!  Today, I was reminded of the value of simple design and limited colors!  Why, oh why, do I make it so difficult for myself sometimes????  A good trick to check up on your shapes is to take a photo of it, and look at the tiny image in your camera preview.  If it doesn't look good there, you probably need to combine some shapes and/or have one value dominate.  Those are 2 rules that I try to go by in every painting.  Anyway, this was really fun to do!  Hope you like it!

30 Paintings in 30 Days: Day 22

"Pretty as a Peacock"  $145  Watercolor and acrylic  (11" x 11" image)

This was a very ambitious painting for me to attempt for this challenge, but now that I'm done, I'm glad I did it!  I will be painting many more peacocks in the future!  I love to negative paint, so that was my favorite part of this process.  (The white spots are painted with acrylic paint and are the spaces between the feathers, that I negative painted.)  I started this painting by masking out the peacock's head and neck.  Then I wet the whole paper, and laid gauze on top, and painted the feathers through the gauze.  See photo below.

(Peacock in progress)

After it dried overnight, I began to paint the peacock in a traditional manner.  Lastly, I negative painted the white spots that were the background, peeking through the feathers. I could have done more detail on the feathers, but decided that I liked them left to the imagination.  The effect of the gauze did the work for me!