December 17, 2007

Landscape Study #312 2007

I reached a milestone today. I painted two ACEO landscape paintings and there is nothing unusual in that.

The remarkable thing is that Landscape Study #313 2007 marks the fulfillment of my painting goal for 2007, which was to paint one ACEO landscape painting every day except for Sunday.

There were 313 painting days in the year; 313 days during which I would plan to be in the studio. Much to my satisfaction, I find that upon concluding this work today, I have successfully completed 313 ACEO landscapes. There were many days when I did not think I would reach this point and others during which I thought the goal would be satisfied much earlier in the year.

That is, therefore, the end of the ACEO challenge. Somehow, it seems appropriate that the last official painting of the challenge should be a sunset scene. (No, I did not plan that!)

Landscape Study #313 2007

But does it also the end of painting ACEO landscapes? Somehow, I don’t think so. ACEOs are great fun, a great way to warm up the paints and brushes before starting work on larger pieces and they are also wonderful ways to work out compositions in color and in oil without the necessity of investing large amounts of time or supplies.

And they are very portable. I can take a few brushes, cards and tubes of paint with me wherever I go and work on them away from home. That is always a plus!

Through the course of this challenge, I have learned a lot about painting and about landscapes.

I have learned to paint fast and more loosely than usual.

I have learned about the affects of underpaintings on the finished painting.

I have even learned how to take challenging or unattractive subjects and make paintings from them.

Not all of the paintings turned out the way I envisioned (very few ever do!). Some were abject failures in my estimation. But others were well beyond what I previously thought I could ever do with any subject.

So while the journey had its ups and downs, its feasts and its famines, I do not regret one step of it!

All of December’s paintings can be seen here.

Visit ACEO Landscape Painting A Day to see more original ACEO Landscape paintings.

This entry was posted on December 17, 2007 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Oil Landscapes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.