Setting goals

Foto © 2015, Marc Volquardsen

2015 was a very intense year with lots of developments. Besides three exhibitions I pushed my oil painting and plein air practice. It is so satisfying to see the improvement and on the other side how this influences in a very positive way my pastel painting. For next year in May I have completely kept my schedule free and will be painting plein air with my oils along the coast of the Baltic sea of Germany. The rapeseed will be in full bloom then and fill the landscape with its glorious yellow color.

2016 is promising to be another exciting year with new different projects. In January I will take part in another group exhibition with my gallery. In the end of April I will try out something new and open my doors for an open studio in my house.

I am pleased to have been invited by the pastel society of Perigord in France and exhibit along with other international acclaimed artist.

And I am really looking forward to a new project I am starting with my husband. We set up a new website about all different aspects of creativity and I will give a talk in the end of May. More details will follow soon.

The last year was filled with hard work but there wasn’t a single day I didn’t like what I was doing.

So for your next year resolutions it again comes down to this: what is it, that you really like to do? Set a goal and then you just need to get started. Not tomorrow or next week. Now. The other day I read about Todd Herrman, who approaches goal setting a bit differently. 0ne or two years plans are nice to have an idea in which direction to go, but break it down to 90 days goals. He comes from the sport area and has trained all kinds of Olympians.

What skill needs to be badly worked on so your goal can tremendously improve? Focus on this very skill.

For you as an artist. What is the skill most needed to improve your drawing/ sketching/ painting? Get your bud down or up and work on it.

You want to draw people but your heads are terrible? Focus on heads. Not hands or knees, just heads.

You think your values sucks in your paintings? Focus on finding the same value in different colors.

Todd Hermans idea works for all different kind of areas, from starting a diet, improving ones skill, or being an entrepreneur.

I will definitely apply his principles when it comes to my oil painting in order to improve more rapidly. My pastel work I will still continue, but the two techniques have made me so happy over the last year and made me complete as an artist and human. I am looking forward so much to all the new developments that will come in 2016!