New Year - New Directions

My first sketch of 2020 was inspired by a tree that I spotted on my early morning dog walk along Metcalfe St. on January 1st.

My first sketch of 2020

The maple tree on Metcalfe street was still clinging to some of its leaves (the word for this is "marcescent") and I was thinking about how, just the week before, I had been reflecting on the past year and the past decade and thinking about what I should carry with me into 2020 and what I should let go of and some new ideas that have been incubating for some time.

Some New Directions

Here are some of the new directions I'm hoping for in 2020:

1. Developing A New Website (With Sales): I plan to sell more of my original artwork, not out of necessity, but because the volume keeps building, and building every year and good paintings and sketches are being kept in boxes when they would really prefer to be hanging on a wall somewhere making somebody smile. My daughter has been pleading with me to build a proper artist website and this will be explored and prioritized as the method to facilitate my art sales in 2020. 
2. Teaching Urban Sketching Workshops: I have been asked to teach urban sketching again this year and I am looking forward to it but I'm wanting to spice it up a bit somehow and I am looking forward to that challenge.
3. Creating Ottawa Urban Sketching Events:  I will still be creating monthly, free, urban sketching events in and around Ottawa as the administrator of the Ottawa chapter of the Urban Sketchers organization but I am working on a new feature to make it even more widely accessible for Ottawa sketchers by creating some online sketching challenges that Ottawa urban sketchers can participate in online.
4. Cultivating My Passion For Animals and Life Drawing: Life drawing, courtroom sketching and animal art will still be an ongoing part of my favourite daily practices in 2020. The book commission that I did in 2019 was wonderful encouragement to continue in that direction. In 2020, I will be looking for thematic ways to build this body of work
5. Returning To Acrylic, Mixed Media and Printmaking: The hectic schedule of the last two years has pulled me away from working with acrylics and printmaking and I miss it a lot. I know I must figure out a way to get back to it in this new year.

My last sketch of 2019

My last sketch of 2019 was based on a photograph taken by Bill Robertson and posted on twitter ( https://twitter.com/billplumtree/status/1211668139278307328?s=20)https://twitter.com/billplumtree/status/1211668139278307328?s=20https://twitter.com/billplumtree/status/1211668139278307328?s=. I feel very inspired by animals and their humans and this will definitely be an ongoing theme going forward.

Commissions

In 2019 I was commissioned (through the blog contact button on the right) to do some sketches for a psychology book about emotions ... I submitted multiple sketches for each emotion for the author to select from ....  and some of the rejected sketches can be seen below.

Book Commission 2019: the rejected sketches

I am always delighted and grateful when I hear from people who like my artwork and/or style. Working on this book commission was incredibly fun and I feel very fortunate to be starting 2020 with a brand new commission from someone who has encouraged me and supported my work for many, many years.

I can't wait to get started on that and many other new projects for this new year!