It’s finally happening… 100 days of watercolor mindfulness project starts on March 20, 2023 aka the first day of Spring!

I had a tough time deciding what to call it. But when I reflected on the goals for this project, I realized that #100DaysOfWatercolorMindfulness was exactly what it needed to be about. So join me weekly LIVE as I practice mindfulness with #watercolor.

I’ll take you through my thoughts as I paint out loud. Maybe we’ll paint a real subject. Maybe we’ll paint our feelings. Anything is possible! You’ll have to show up to find out. 🙂

Check the Community tab on my YouTube page to see when I’ll be live as my schedule will change on a weekly basis. Even if you can’t join live, you can watch the recording on YouTube.

What’s the inspiration behind this project?

This is a long time coming ever since I published my Skillshare class last year about this. The more and more I grew in my watercolor skills, the less connected I felt at times. And the more pressure I felt to turn my creative pursuits into business ventures rather than focusing on just creating.

Because of my personality traits of needing validation and affirmation. And starting my creative journey on Instagram. I naturally needed more and more from my followers as I grew in my journey. But I also felt this tension that I was starting to lose the passion for it. And it was because I was doing it for others, and not myself.

So that’s the general inspiration behind this project. I want to practice what I preach – I practice mindfulness already as I’m painting. But I want you to see how it plays out in real time because it’s hard to include these moments when teaching a workshop or tutorial.

More on this later as I explain why this project had to be livestreamed rather than static photos or timelapse videos.

Previous 100 day projects

Since 2016, I’ve done two 100-day projects. The first one started in April 2017. And it was 100 days of watercolor wreaths. Man, do I love wreaths. You know that about me by now.

I started out reeally simple. The shapes are easily recognizable. The skills are pretty basic. And that’s not bad for someone JUST starting out on their creative journey. As I became more confident and wanting to challenge my skills, I decided to do a wreath of sea creatures. So I did sting rays, koi fish, dolphins, etc. Those were pretty fun!

Then I wanted to go back to florals, but I didn’t want to do my typical wreaths. I wanted to aim for semi-realism. So I found a book of A-Z florals from the library, and decided to follow the book page by page. I studied the flower, and sketched it in a circular form, and these are some of my favorites from this project.

If there’s anything that consistency and practice teaches you, it’s that you CAN improve!

The second time I did a 100 day project, it wasn’t officially dubbed as a 100-day project. But in 2021, during the pandemic, I wanted to get back into painting regularly. I had started to emerge from some painful personal moments in my life, and simultaneously wanted to relaunch my business. So each month was a different theme for almost the entire year.

I started off with florals again, of course. And then wreaths. And then I wanted to challenge myself yet again and paint animals and houseplants with more realism.

Towards the end of 2022, I did another round of sea creatures and then birds.

That was definitely a challenge because I cannot sketch for the life of me. Thank goodness for my iPad so that I can sketch without ruining lots of paper!

Focusing on a topic for an entire month was helpful because I didn’t feel pressure to create something everyday. But I could explore lots of different subjects within a topic.

100 Days of Watercolor Mindfulness

Which brings us to why this 100 day project is especially special.

First – I’m not going to focus on a topic.. at least not in terms of a subject. Instead of a topic or subject guiding me, I’m going to first come from a place of mindfulness. What that means that in that moment, I’m going to tap into my feelings, my surrounding, etc. And paint from there. And if that leads to a topic or subject, great. If not, that’s okay, too.

Second – each day will be livestreamed. Unfortunately, I can’t keep to a daily livestream schedule because I couldn’t find a time that would be consistent for 100 straight days. So I will be going live a few times a week, and it may take 6 or more months to be live 100 days, but that’s okay. Mindfulness is not a race. It’s not about getting to 100 days, but about what I’ll be learning at each day.

So each Sunday evening, I will announce (on YouTube’s community tab) when I will be live that week. And I hope you can join me.

It’ll be 15-30 minutes of painting. I’ll start with a breathing exercise, and take you through my thoughts on what I’m feeling like that day.

And the purpose of that is to encourage you to take a similar approach before you paint. We are often too consumed with what the end result is going to be. Or overwhelmed by all the things we have yet to paint. Or already stopping ourselves with worries and doubts. So start with a breathing exercise to center yourself. And acknowledge where you are. And then begin painting.

I also think this inside look on how I approach painting will help demystify what you see all over social media. You see timelapses and tutorials without much mention of what’s actually going on in the artist’s head. And as you paint, I’m sure you have A TON of thoughts. I want to help break that barrier between us and be honest about how difficult it can be to paint sometimes. But also how freeing it can be.

I really don’t know what or how this project will unfold.

But I am excited to reflect at the end of it (and throughout) and for you to be on this journey with me.

So join me live, or catch the recording later. And I hope that you will grow in mindfulness this year with using watercolor as a helpful tool.

See you there!

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