Collage of the paintings I completed during this 30 in 30

Well, another 30 in 30 has come and gone! The last image we always create at the end of every 30 in 30 is a collage of all of the paintings we created during the challenge.  It is really a great thing to do, as all the paintings always have such impact when viewed in this way.
This challenge was a little different for me as I had so much else going on in my life that I didn't get to paint all 30 days.  That's ok though. I must admit, I was disappointed the first day or 2 that I missed painting.  I do like to challenge myself and finish 30 paintings. But, in reality, looking at the work I did complete, which amounts to 20 paintings, I can say, Let it Go, Karen! 20 paintings is not too shabby.  

If you followed me through out this challenge, you may be wondering what happened to my Glimpsed paintings.  The Glimpsed paintings are a series of 20 of the world's most visited cities all painted on very long, narrow, vertical panels that measure 4"x 18".  I completed 11 of these so far.  What I found during the challenge was that these paintings are very time consuming to design and research and I definitely need to devote more than one day to each of them. I am still pumped about the idea as I really love the concept and results - My intent is to provide an image that gives a fleeting glimpse of one of these 20 places in the world, as if you are driving by an area and catch sight of a beautiful scene but only for a fleeting moment. Anyway, there will definitely be 9 more of these to come to complete the series, but as I said, I will be taking more time to find the images and design with care.  Thanks for everyone who followed me and gave such wonderful, positive feedback through the intensity and fun of the 30 in 30!  Love you!

January 2017 Collage of Paintings

Day 19 of the 30 in 30 - "Park Güell, Barcelona"

Travelling the world is fun, but tiring!  Today's most visited city (the 10th, I believe) is Barcelona, Spain.  Many famous artists have come from Spain, so I thought it appropriate to choose a scene from Park Güell, a beautiful park that was completely designed by the famous artist/architect, Antoni Gaudi.  It was constructed between 1900 and 1914 and is a combination of architectural and natural elements.  His buildings all have soft curves and often include mosaic work.  the view I chose is from the very top of the park, looking down at one of the iconic structures in the park.  The wall you see at the bottom of the panel is actually very intricate mosaic work... too intricate for me to try to represent.  In fact, this whole scene was pretty intricate, and mid way through painting it, I wondered just what the hell was I thinking?   I do, however like the zig zagging lines that take your eye through the picture and buildings themselves are what initially attracted me to paint this scene.  If you want more info about Park Güell, you can check it out here and here. There is so much more to see than what I was able to represent in this tiny Glimpse of the park!

Park Güell, Barcelona,oil on panel, 4"x18"
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Day 16 of the 30 in 30 - Hong Kong, Meditating on Tian Tan

Back to travelling the world folks and my Glimpsed paintings.  Today's most visited area of the world is Hong Kong (it is 9th in the list).  I have been thinking a lot about this whole challenge that I set myself.. visiting and painting the world's 20 most visited places... As I have mentioned, it has really challenged me to think about what I should paint... It is very hard to pick just one scene from these diverse and very colorful places!  Today's painting is based on where I would go if I were to go to Hong Kong.  After wandering around the streets of the city, and not really enjoying store after store, building after building... I ventured into the 'suburbs'.. out in the country side and found this amazing bronze statue of the Buddha.  It is called the "Tian Tan Buddha".  

The following little excerpt is from Wikipedia...

"Located at Ngong Ping, Lantau Island, in Hong Kong, the statue is sited near Po Lin Monastery and symbolises the harmonious relationship between man and nature, people and faith. It is a major center of Buddhism in Hong Kong, and is also a popular tourist attraction."

If you look up pictures of it, you will see it is enormous.  I'd love to visit it someday. :)

Hong Kong, Meditating on Tian Tan, oil on panel, 4"x18"
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Day 11 of the 30 in 30 - "Passing by Dubai"

Dubai is a city that seems to have sprung up out of the dust in the Middle East.  It is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene.  I first heard of it about 8 years ago when the tallest building in the world (The Burj Khalifa)  was erected there. I thought it would be cool to paint the Burj, but alas, it is difficult from Google Streetview to get a good view of it.  As I mentioned yesterday, it is also difficult to decide which scene to paint in these cities. There is so much to see and many disparate areas.  But, Dubai was pretty clear to me.  When exploring the various areas of Dubai, I generally found that there is ultra modern, futuristic looking buildings springing up everywhere (Dubai seems to be in a perpetual state of construction)  and then on the outlaying areas, you have vast areas of low slung, very average looking buildings.  I chose a view from one of the many twisting highways, zipping by a particularly nice arrangement of shiny skyscrapers.  For some reason, it reminded me of Tatooine, the fictional Star Wars planet Luke Skywalker was from.

Passing By Dubai, oil, 4"x18"
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Day 4 of the 30 in 30 - "Ducks in London"

Evidently London held first place for a long time as the number one place visited in the world, until last year.  Then Bangkok took that title, and London moved to second place.  Still not too shabby.  I can actually say that I have been to London, and saw Big Ben in person.  Not something I can say about many of the other places on the list.  But, I flew into Heathrow when I was about 20 years old and stayed in the square mile for a few days before moving on to Glasgow where I studied ceramics.  

This is another of my "Glimpsed" paintings in which I present to you fleeting visions of the World's 20 most popular tourist sites.  It is a view of Big Ben with two Bobbies taking a stroll.  One of them just found out they are being followed by some friendly ducks. I added the ducks just for so, (I thought this composition could use 'em) and made the sky a bit more dramatic than was in the original reference pic I got while perusing Google Street view. If you scroll down below my painting, I included the original screenshot. As you can see, there are many alterations I make to a reference photo before I make it into a painting I can live with.

Ducks in London, oil, 4"x18"
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