Looking Back On 2013

 My space at Crossroads Gallery

I can't help but to look back these last days of the year.  Christmas has passed and I'm tidying up the last to dos before the year ends.  Happily making big check marks on my mental and actual lists.  

Each year I make a list of Goals - Personal and Artist ones (it's a well known fact that I'm a huge list maker, a trait I have passed down to some of my boys and to my granddaughter), my husband jokes that I probably have a master list of lists and I actually do.  But I  digress......

My Personal List always has the proverbial : Loose 10 pounds+, Get more active,  ( somehow these are tied together and involve another item, find more time to do this), and tell more people I appreciate them in my life, live a more present day.........and so on....... You get the drift.

Crossroads Galley Space

But my Artist List usually has more concrete and productive Goals.  And I think even if you are not a regular member of the Make A List Club, your art can benefit by doing so.  Like making my grocery list, it's the very simple act of writing it down that files it into my brain, and makes me think about where I want the new year to take my art.  If your like me with busy days and stuff to do unless I sit down to ponder these things I don't feel in tune with where I'm going in my art.   Yes, there are professional artist goals like:  get my website redesign finished, apply to more shows, and redo my exhibit space at Crossroads Gallery.........

Then there are the deeper listed items that even the hobbyist artist can think on:  Developing better depth perception in my landscapes, continuing to refine my skills in lost and found edges,  growing my small band of plein air sketchers and journaling friends. 
 
There are many people reflecting on the year as it was and I hope just as many looking forward to the new.  As I think about what I want to do to spread the colored pencil paintings word and how I can help my students accomplish their goals I'm thankful for the small band of my blog readers.  I hope my blog entries have helped some of you or spurred on a curiosity for the media.  Let me know if it has, make a comment and tell me how I can help more or just share this with someone you think may enjoy it.  

And if your reading me for the first time, let me know how you found me.   I promise my entries are usually more full of pictures and how I did my latest painting than lists.      


Now to finish the last 2013 painting in my drawing desk.


Oh and instead of a New Years resolution (which I would un-doutably would break by the 5th of January I'm making a 2014 Mantra and it is: Accomplish Your Best   

What would yours be?
Gloria Callahan