Growth - Day 23 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge

"Growth" - 24" x 18" acrylic on paper - $295

I've lost track of how many of these 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenges I've done over the past few years, but I can tell you that every time I do one of these events, I experience major personal growth.  And I've found there appears to be a pattern with my creativity process.  It goes something like this:

1.  Right on - sounds like a great idea so count me in!
2.  Figure out a theme and get 'er done.
3.  Start prepping all the substrates so I'm ready to roll.
4.  Set aside a place in the house where I can work uninterrupted for a month.
5.  Tell my Self I'm going to start making 2-30 paintings at a time so I can get ahead and not stress.
6.  Post my daily painting to Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days blog
7.  Plan a marketing scheme that includes uploading to ETSY, Artfinder, my blog, FB, Instagram, and Saatchi each and every day.
8.  Days 1-7 go very well - actually exactly as planned. 
9.  I get an out of town job and scramble, using each and every piece I made to "get ahead" and am up until 2:00 a.m. making more art to cover the time I'll be away.
10.  Get back from the job, working 12x as hard to play catch-up in my office then force myself to take a break in the studio to make art.
11.  The art is going amazingly well since I don't seem to care as much so I make a couple pieces using the wild-abandon approach.
12.  Almost caught up and looking forward to getting ahead again.
13.  Eureka!  Caught up and am one painting ahead.
14.  Friend calls to go to dinner so of course I go and have 3 glass of wine which kills my brain.
15.  This day is toast.  Brain is fried.  Upload my one extra painting and grin, thinking I won.
16.  Feeling good and head into the studio to knock out a couple more pieces.
17.  Score!  I've got 5 pieces done and am on top of the world.  Of course it's OK to take a break because after all, I've worked SOoooo hard.
18.  Friend calls to go shoe shopping - got to go.  Upload photos on the blog and figure I'll take care of the rest when I get back.
19.  Am back.  Tired.  I. Am. A. SLUG.  F.... art.
20.  Feeling better - back in the studio for a gentle session of intuitive painting.
21.  Apparently my intuition decided it needed a break too, so I'm stuck with finger painting like a maniac, finding new undiscovered colors of mud.  Not sure this is right.
22.  Tell my Self it's OK to fall behind.  In fact it's A-OK to just chuck the whole notion altogether to eat Twinkies and drink wine. 
23.  I'm out of paintings, and there's no where to go.
24.  Finally kicked my butt into the studio and am looking at all the work I've done these past 3 weeks and tell myself "good job - I didn't make crap."
25.  Start flinging gesso onto the paper surface to prep more pieces.  After all, there's only a few more days left. 
26.  Friends come by trying to drown me in margaritas.  I show amazing resolve and only drink 2. 
27.  I'm just painting now - the rest of the social media postings can just wait.  I'm busy.
28.  Somehow I managed to catch up and even made a little collage of some of my favorite pieces.  Ahhhhh......
29.  WOW - someone actually BOUGHT one of my pieces of art that I uploaded on one of my on-line galleries.  SCORE!  I run to the studio; pack up the piece and ship it out.  Then head back and start knocking out the final piece.
30.  DONE.  Finito.  Completion.  Such a feeling of accomplishment - I can't begin to express the feelings I feel when this is all done and over with.  I freaking just painted 30 paintings in 30 days.  And I sold one.  And there are several more in the cart (which means someone likes them but haven't quite decided to buy, which usually just means squat).
31.  Make up my collage of my 30 paintings and drool.  Doesn't matter what I make or how they look - the point of the matter is I finished creating 30 paintings. 

Now I need to play catch up and upload all the work into my galleries.....an artist's work is never done.