How do you find something to paint or sketch every single day of the month? This September was the third year I have taken part in the Strada Easel Daily Painting Challenge. Here’s how I did it …
What is the Strada Easel Daily Painting Challenge?
As the name suggests, the goal is to create a painting, or drawing, from direct observation (not photos) and share it on Instagram or Facebook, every day of the month.
You register to take part at the end of August and add the hashtag #stradaeasel to each daily social media post so that the organisers can check you are keeping up. At the end of the month all those who have completed the challenge (and there is a high drop off rate) are entered into a prize draw and have a chance to win a beautiful Strada portable box easel or other items of Strada art equipment.
While it would be nice to win a prize (I didn’t) for me the main incentive is being part of the community of other artists taking part, the art lovers who follow along and the challenge to my creative thinking skills to find inspiration every day no matter what else is going on in life.
So to give you a bit more context…
I knew September was going to be another busy month, our life here usually is, but we had spent most of the summer renovating the house (our ancient cottage is finally getting a long-overdue spruce up, which is great but also chaotic) and I was looking forward to putting my art practice front and centre of my life again.
Read on to find out what I did and how I squeezed it all in, including a wonderful family trip to Tuscany for my eldest son’s wedding. These entries are either extracts from my personal diary that I write year round, or my daily Instagram posts, whichever gave the greatest insight into the day’s project. I had set myself the theme of ‘Joyful’ but as you will see – this wasn’t always the case!
Images titled in bold are available to buy, click on the image for a link to the collection.
Day 1. Sheep in a Sunny Field
Diary. ‘I managed to stay on-task and got outside to paint by 10.30 am. It was a beautiful day so I walked up the fields behind the house and painted the sheep basking in the warm sunshine. The painting came out quite well, no-one came by and the sheep weren’t at all bothered by me, so I had a very happy morning’
Day 2. Raspberry Canes
Diary. ‘I tidied up the studio then painted some raspberry canes from the garden. The first two I wiped off, despite trying really hard to save number 2. I finally got a decent painting done after dinner.’
Day 3. Garden Dahlias
Diary. ‘I spent the afternoon painting the bright red dahlias on the patio. Tricky but fun to do.’
Day 4. Rose and Bell
Diary. ‘I painted the service bell and a yellow rose. Started well but the rose was a nightmare!’
Day 5. Sweet Peas
Diary. ‘Painted a vase of sweet peas, in gouache – not great but OK.’
Day 6. A Jugful of Everlasting Sweet Peas
Diary. ‘I got up at 7.30 am and painted the sweet peas in a jug. It came out well and I was really happy to have done a decent oil painting ahead of a week of watercolour sketches.’
Day 7. My Daughter and Granddaughter
On this day we travelled to Italy for my son’s wedding. I had packed a small pencil case with my sketching kit and a pocket watercolour set.
Instagram. ‘My daughter and granddaughter on our flight to Pisa today. We’re on our way to Tuscany!’
Day 8. Trees by the pool, Pien de Mucini
Instagram. ‘I am besotted with the trees here’
Day 9. A Peaceful Moment
Instagram ‘As the wedding didn’t start until 4 pm, I had time to paint the morning sunlight falling through the trees on the garden terrace before breakfast – a lovely peaceful moment’
Day 10. Nectarines
Instagram. ‘My son’s wedding yesterday, in the beautiful old town of Massa Marittima, here in Tuscany, was an absolutely perfect, joyful and lovely day. In fact I celebrated a little too hard and have spent most of today recovering! So this evening I have quickly sketched these nectarines to keep my Strada challenge going, even if I am not!’
Day 11. A view from Volterra
Instagram ‘A beautiful hill top town with a really impressive cathedral… Really would love to return here with my oils one day – this landscape is just awe inspiring!’
Day 12. A Little Lemon Tree
Diary. ‘We had breakfast then R & T played table tennis while I looked for, and failed, to find something to paint. I ended up painting a potted lemon tree when we went to the pool for a swim.’
Day 13. An Old Olive Tree
Instagram ‘Finally sketched an olive tree. We are surrounded by olive groves here, all heavy with fruit at the moment. This took two attempts today, my first was more green than blue, and just not olive enough! I’m much happier with this one, although I had to work fast as I was sat in full sun.’
Day 14. People at the airport
Instagram ‘This was a day of travelling home, so this may be the best I get today.’
Day 15. Lemons and Blueberries
Diary ‘Did a pastel drawing of lemons and blueberries for Strada. Early night.’
Day 16. Anemones in a Vintage Jug
Instagram. ‘Still trying to get back into my stride after our week away and the tummy bug so I’m glad this one didn’t put up a fight. Having said that, I did wipe off the first idea I tried!’
Day 17.
Flowers by the Bird Bath
Instagram ‘I’m clinging on by my finger nails here, but I am nothing if not committed.’
Day 18. A Plethora of Pumpkins
Instagram ‘Well I got lost on the way there, lost on the way home and spent an hour trying to find my painting pal, Greta Vildaite, in between times. Turns out I don’t function at all well when I’ve got no Wi-Fi or phone signal (Clumber Park lacks both). But spending a few hours with my good friend and this incredible, colourful display of squashes was worth all the faffing about. I feel so much more positive about completing the challenge today after yesterday’s low point. I think it shows the importance of finding a subject that gets you excited to be painting and out of the house!
Day 19. Tromboncinos
Instagram ‘I think these are called Courgette Tromboncino – possibly because they’re a bit like a trombone shape? Anyway, they were for sale at Clumber Park yesterday and I couldn’t resist getting them to paint (then cook). Day 19 and all is well’
Day 20. Roses by the Summer House
Instagram ‘Looking up the garden steps for today’s painting. I’ve been busy writing a project for my student’s today so this was squeezed in at the end of the afternoon. Phew!’
Day 21. A small self portrait
Instagram ‘Small self-portraits force you to simplify, so does working to a time limit. I allowed myself an hour to do this, which was just enough time to get something down and not over-do it. Yes, I do look a bit sad- but I wasn’t, this is simply the face I have when I’m deep in thought.’
Day 22. Stone Jars
Instagram ‘This would have been so much better if the stupid paper hadn’t ruckled (gone wobbly). I used acrylics to do this late this evening and really enjoyed painting these old stone jars. Unfortunately, despite being primed, the paper wasn’t heavy enough to cope with this amount of paint. I’ll squash it flat between books when it’s fully dry – I’m still pleased to have got this done at the end of a very busy day’ [Work began on our bathroom refit- it will be chaos here for another three weeks!]
Day 23. Chillies
‘A quick gouache sketch at the end of another long day.’
Day 24. Hanging Plant
Instagram. ‘I’m multitasking- soaking in the bath while creating and posting today’s painting. The bath water was convenient for rinsing my paint brush but I did splash a few blobs onto the paper by accident.’
This was done in our downstairs bathroom, my sanctuary from the building site upstairs!
Day 25. Dahlias in a Green Jug
Diary. ‘I did two paintings this afternoon as I had to wipe out the first one. Rushing and working under pressure is not conducive to good work’
Day 26. Garden Flowers in A Cornish Jug
Dairy ‘Spent most of the day in the studio, working on an acrylic painting for J’s birthday [my dearest friend since childhood]. It came out well after a bit of a struggle.’
Day 27. Spider Plantlet in Water
Instagram ‘I seem to always have something taking root in a jar of water on the kitchen windowsill. Here’s my current project, a spider plantlet with a wonderful crop of roots. Only a few days left of the Strada Easel Challenge, it’s gone quickly!’
Day 28. Cauliflower Head
Diary. Painted a cauliflower – came out well but then fell in the palette! I rescued it, thankfully.’
Day 29. Tiny Red Boat
Instagram. ‘This is the smallest painting I’ve ever done at just 3.5” x 4” and it took me just as long to do as any of my normal sized panels! Anyway, I love this little fishing boat and I know these are probably imported from China by the ton, have nothing to do with St Ives and are sold in every seaside souvenir shop in the country, with the appropriate name stuck on the hull, it still makes me smile and reminds me of happy holidays.’
Day 30. Favourite Things
Diary. ‘It was the last day of the Strada Challenge today, so I had the ‘grea't’ idea of gathering all the props I’d used this month into a still-life group. I worked on it most of the day and it’s ok but I will need to do more tomorrow’
Although some days were hard (and I didn’t win a prize) I really have no trouble at all with painting everyday – that’s my idea of heaven! But having to share the work on social media, regardless of its success or failure, really does add pressure to the whole process. However, as a creative kick start and confidence builder I think the Strada challenge is well work taking . I hope this has encouraged the painters among you to give it a try (it all happens again in January) and given the rest of you an insight into how my paintings are created and what inspires me.
One of my favourite paintings from my Strada month
