Happy 2018 to you all!
This is my first letter of this new year and I must express my awe & my gratitude for all of the wonderful things that happened in 2017.
Thank you all for being part of this journey of mine—of making sense of life through art & painting!
2017 was full of plenty of paintings & adventures.
It started with painting lovely commission paintings of the Oregon wine country
It was also a year of painting en plein air.
It was a year of painting in a hurricane.
It was a year of painting the icy cold beauty of Alaska.
It was a year of painting in Central Park.
And of course, it was the year of Europe! My grand adventure of 2017 was travelling to Italy & France.
I got to see – with my very own eyes! – all of the great paintings I have loved for so long, and got to travel to some of the most beautiful places on earth. We stayed in Paris and travelled throughout Italian wine country! Everything we saw deserved to be a painting.
I ended my Europe trip with the Grand Reveal show at Anam Cara. I am still absolutely astounded by all of those who came to this show – never could I have imagined that over 150 people would have come to see all of the paintings that were inspired by Italy & France! At the end of my show, 33 of the 38 paintings were sold and I got to see so many faces of people who loved & supported me over the years. What a night!
Thank you to all who supported my show & my artwork – I get to do what I love every day and get to travel to beautiful places because of you!
One year ago, I could have never imagined the great things that were to happen in 2017. May this challenge me to dream even bigger this year!
So this year, 2018, here are some of my dreams and goals:
-Show my artwork in a new gallery
-Create more paintings en plein air
-Create at least 12 new paintings as a part of my Golden Hour Series
-Learn 3 new techniques in oil painting
-Dare to paint on some LARGE canvases
-Travel to a country I have never been to before
-Travel to Nicaragua again
-Paint the Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon
-Drink more water
-Sell a painting to someone outside of the PNW
-Reach 10k followers on Instagram
-Play more guitar
-Go on more hikes (any suggestions?)
-Revamp my website
-Watch my little sis graduate
-Meet new artist friends
I hope that you are looking ahead at this new year with dreams & possibilities as well. May we be surprised & grateful a year from now when we look back in hindsight at where we are now!
This is a little sneak peek at what I have already been up to in this new year, I think I am going to call this my “Golden Hour Series.”
Before I sign off this letter… look forward to a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT that I will be making in the next couple weeks.
Now, all I have left to say is… I am feeling pretty AWESOME about 2018!
Love,
Christine Joy