Welcome to the 30 in 30 for 2017 (Despite a Huge Renovation)!

I am joining Leslie Saeta’s 30-in-30 painting regimen this year.  It’s a group effort where listeners are invited to take on a daily painting habit to improve their work habits.  Her online podcast “Artists Helping Artists” is a favorite of mine.  The whole point of the 30 in 30 is to paint more, and to paint daily for a month.  I am resuming with some small bird paintings – a continuation of the 16 in 16 series, and will see where to go from there.

The 16 in 16 bird series from 2016 is going to be a starting point for the 30 in 30, expanding upon what I learned about painting birds.

I knew I would be moving for the first week of September, so I started painting a little early and planned to post on time, but I had to race the clock to get our home completely emptied and ready for demolition, so I will join a week late and will conclude a week late as well. Considering the extent of the demolition being done on our home, and the many days of non-stop work it took to prepare, I am really quite all right with giving myself a bit of wiggle room as long as I make it to the finish line with a new batch of paintings and the lessons they teach me.  Check out this photo of our before and after demolition photo – wild!

Top: The “before” home with a line of tiles removed where the home was sectioned off for partial demolition. The front looks very nice, but the left/back construction was of lesser quality with corrugated roofing instead of monier tile, and termite-ridden single wall wood that let the rain flood the laundry room every time a modest storm soaked the ground.
Bottom: the precise demolition, leaving behind the segment of the house with bathrooms and bedrooms intact.

The demolition took only about 10 hours so far, and seems close to completion.  The new structure will take about 6 months.  It is a lot easier to destroy things than to create them!

We are rebuilding about half the structure and repairing some serious flaws with drainage and termite damage while still retaining the 40% of the home that works well for us. My largest part of the work is done.  I am free to return to my easel on a daily basis!