Sold Daily Paintings

"Bright Fall Colors" Oil 5"x7"
©2007 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD

"October Radiance" Miniature Oil
©2007 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD

"October Glow" Miniature Oil
©2007 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD

"Cobalt Salt Shaker "Oil 3"x3"
©2007 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD

"The Traveler "Oil 4"x6"
©2007 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD

"By the Window "Oil 8"x8"
©2007 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD

"Sunflower Glow"Oil 5"x5"
©2007 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD

"Sandcreek Reflections "Oil 4"x6"
©2007 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD

"The Accident" Bird Study Oil 7"x5"
©2007 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD

"Fall Mirror" Oil 5"x3.5"
©2007 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD

Regarding completing a Painting a Day....

Today I checked the one Google discussion group in which I bother to participate. The format is for Daily Painters. A fellow artist relayed that a NY art critic and historian had asked him, "Why is making a painting a day better than painting daily?" This question got me to thinking about the whole Painting a Day movement, in which I've been participating for awhile now. Here's my take.

Personally, I don't think that completing a painting a day is necessarily better than painting every day. Both give me the practice and challenge to improve skills. I do think having that goal of making a painting a day is a good challenge, however. Perhaps it's like practice in other arts. The professional ballet dancer executes class (the barre and center floor work) almost every day, and usually rehearsal too. Additionally, performances are several times a week.

Class is not a performance... but rather a discipline of preparation. Years of it are vital to gain the skills needed to be part of the corps de ballet and more years or exceptional talent are required to be a solo artist. Talent is vital but can never get the dancer anywhere without that daily hard work.

So... I think for many of us the goal of a painting a day is good discipline. Perhaps most of my little daily paintings are not as "important" as my larger works that I've planned more carefully and worked on sometimes for weeks or months. But there is beauty there even in the little dailies, just as there is beauty in ballet class work.