2020 was a year...

 Yes, 2020 is a year that will be in history for a very long time.  So much happened and so many things changed.  For some this was a devastating year, or should I say, for most.  For me as I was on staff at a non-profit organization, my quarantine time was 6+ weeks of no pay but it was not a time to be bored.  

In 2020 I started to practice my drawing of which I am not that great at.  I took a 100 page blank journal and drew every morning prior to work and every evening when I got home.  I would pull up Google images and try to draw them and I would practice by watching TV.  My idea is if I could get the dimensions and expressions down drawing faces, then dimensions would not be so hard on other subjects.  When I would get tired of the learning process, I would go back to practicing on flowers.  To my surprise, both subjects were getting better and better.  100 pages in 40 days and at that point, I started to illustrate flowers on 8.5 x 11 " card stock with a fine felt pen.  By the end of Feb I launched my first coloring book on Amazon.  Learning how to do that was also a big learning curve but I got it done and by March, I had 2 more coloring books and few low content books on Amazon.  That was new and different.  Currently I have more than 150 low content books on Amazon. 

When we were quarantined in the spring, I then took those coloring pages with totaled more than 200 drawings and loaded many of them onto a Print on Demand Platform.  All the items I just mentioned are on my website; CWO Design .  I now have 2 platforms that sell my print on demand products both under the name of CWO Design.

Living on the Oregon Coast and enjoying the position I had at the Non Profit, I was content all but one thing, I could not handle the small cottage I was living in.  It stifled my creativity.  As the civil unrest started to escalate in Portland, I made the decision to move to a more mellow place, I moved to McCall Idaho in Sept 2020.  I rented the only place available, a 3 bedroom house.  Breathing room!  Here I have had the time and space to start something new, again!

In Idaho, I have started to explore my painting ability.  I can hear some of you already..."but you have been painting for 40 years!"  Yes, I have.  But for 40 years I painted on Cotton using an eyedropper.  Now I am using brushes which is a huge learning curve.  All these original paintings can be found at my website, C.Watson Originals   I have been painting sense Christmas taking it into 2021.  In fact, March 2021, I will have my first ever Gallery Show at a lovely McCall Id art gallery: Gallery 55  

So, as I started this blog, 2020 was a year.  For me, along with the struggles of Covid, it was a year of new things.   No real financial gain in 2020 but it was a great year to expand my creativity.

Maybe 2020 was more than just a struggle for you as well.  2020 was a bundle of crazy things but not all those things were struggle.  What was your new experience for 2020.  What did you realize about yourself that You did not know prior.  Think about it... What was 2020 for you.