My month art: the finished gallery

At the very end of 2013, I had two resolutions for the new year. Resolution one, "do whatever you want," will be addressed and explained later. Resolution two was to complete one painting every month for the whole year. I had a painting in mind for December and didn't want an empty nail on the wall for the other 11 months of the year, so I decided, why not have rotating paintings?

At first, I was a little scared to jump into this project. I don't really consider myself an artist (but then again, that word can have LOTS of meanings) and painting on canvas is so... final and serious. Deg and my mother in law supported me by getting me supplies for Christmas and getting me set up with a "gallery" in one of the rooms in our new house (which room is now a guest room, but that's another tale for another day).

Each month, I would use both my imagination and the depths of Pinterest to get an idea that I felt conveyed the month I was painting for and my personality. Some months I'm much more proud of than others, but all in all, I feel like this exercise was really good for me. I learned a lot about painting, sure, but I also learned a lot about myself. It turns out that while I'll never be a Monet or a Picasso, I'm not half bad, and that I'm really good at seeing an idea and finding a way to make it work. I don't say this to be braggy, but it was an important lesson in self esteem for myself, which is something my sometimes anxiety-riddled brain struggles with.

So, do you wanna see my gallery?

January: This swirly tree (which is weirdly dark in this picture for some reason) was really fun. The free formed swirls were easy enough that I felt comfortable starting here, and even though Nevada is never cold EVER, this tree seemed to say winter to me, so I went for it.

February: Valentine's day obviously is a thing anyway, but especially at our house. I didn't want to be overtly celebrating and wanted to do something a little trendy, so these cute tribal heart tipped arrows seemed like a good idea. I think they're cute.

March: Disclosure: this one is my least favorite. My idea was a giant shamrock filled with little shamrocks. And that's what it is, but not the way I imagined. I may replace this one, but at least it taught me patience and a bit about color mixing.

April: Disclosure: I don't love this one. But I wanted to do something for Easter, so why not a giant Easter egg? Plus I got to put chevron on something, which satisfied that itch.

May: This painting was a pain in the bum. It turns out painting a person is hard and I will probably never do that again. But it was satisfying to know that I could do it if I wanted. In fact, I painted one for my friend's daughter's room and for my sister because even though it was hard, it was so satisfying to think I'd made something that pretty.

June: There wasn't anything particularly helpful in June for painting ideas, so I just let myself pick something I liked rather than picking something seasonal. And I found this funky peacock and I loved him, so he became my June buddy.

July: I absolutely love this flag. First of all, I hand painted the stars, which was hard, but totally worth it. Secondly, I loved antiquing the red stripes. And also, I love America, so it all worked out!

August: This month has no holidays and painting the blistering heat of Vegas didn't seem particularly fun, so I wanted something light and bright. These cute fluffy clouds were simple but pretty and I love them.

September: Back to school needed to happen. And having taught for so many years, I wanted to do a throwback to that experience. The Montessori school I taught at in Indiana helped me to be weird. What I mean is that there was freedom to be me and to explore different talents. For the first time in my life, I felt like I'd been given permission to try anything because it was okay if I failed. And one of the things they did there at the teen activities was henna tattoos. In order to honor that, I decided to henna my back to school apple.

October: This month usually means Halloween, so I wanted to do something along those lines without being overtly Halloween-y. Pumpkins and gourds seemed just perfect. I liked the three stacked and the different colors, and if it's not obvious by now, I like the off-centered business.

November: I was feeling bold this month, so I went with a bold background and a bold pattern. I decided that I wanted to do something Thanksgiving-y, so Indian corn seemed like a fun idea. Painting the individual kernels took some time, but really, it was neat to see the pattern emerge.

December: This is actually the painting that started it all. I saw something like this on Pinterest in 2013 and thought, "I could do that. No, I WILL do that!" I love that this piece finished this experiment because it utilized most of the skills I learned this year. Plus, it's beautiful and I love the subject matter.