 Reflections on the Strada Easel Challenge This past January, I participated in the Strada Easel Challenge—a commitment to paint or draw from life every day for 31 days. No photo references, no made up motifs. Just observation, decision-making, and showing up daily with whatever time and energy I had – which varied greatly. Like many artists, I’m prone to thinking that a “successful” painting session needs to result in a finished piece. This challenge gently—and persistently—proved otherwise. Lesson one: daily practice doesn’t need to be precious. Not every session produced a resolved painting, and that turned out to be the point. A quick sketch, a 10-minute color study, or a small impression done with focus and intention was enough to reap the benefits of the practice. Showing up consistently mattered more than outcomes. The habit itself sharpened my eye and quieted the internal pressure to produce. Lesson two: I really love painting still life! One of the unexpected joys of the challenge was rediscovering how much I enjoy painting still life. Glass in particular completely captivated me: the reflections, distortions, hard edges against soft light, and subtle shifts in color to capture its transparency and reflection. Lesson three: it was refreshing to step away from landscapes. As a landscape painter, I spend a lot of time responding to wide-open spaces and changing light. Focusing on still life felt like a reset—contained, intimate, and controlled, even with a big brush! It reminded me that many of the same skills apply regardless of subject: value relationships, composition, color temperature, and confident mark-making. Changing subject matter refreshed my relationship to the act of painting itself. By the end of the month, I didn’t just have a stack of sketches and studies—I had a clearer sense of what kind of practice means. Painting from life every day reinforced that growth doesn’t always look dramatic with a complicated set up. As I move forward, I’m carrying this lesson with me: progress happens when you show up, look closely, and give yourself permission to practice without expectation. 
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Over the last five months, I’ve had the opportunity to do more road trips that have taken me to bucket list places like Glacier National Park and Pacific Rim National Park. Plus, every summer, my husband and I try to get out to backpack in the vast wilderness of the Sierra Nevada. Needless to say, that along with both these opportunities, came countless views and inspirations to paint (when time permitted, of course). One of the questions I get most often is “What art supplies do you pack?” So, I thought I’d share my lists for two different scenarios at opposite ends of the spectrum: 1. My lightweight, minimalist go kit for backpacking, and 2. My plein air car kit. I also included the brands I use since that’s usually the next question! When every ounce counts When I’m packing for a 3+ day backpacking adventure and I’m carrying my sleeping gear, food, water, clothing, etc., I need to go light. This is what I typically bring:
All of this weighs less than one pound and fits in a ziplock bag. Yes, I could have gone lighter with a water brush but I really detest them and found it was worth the weight for me to have a real brush. The thing I love most about this mini go-kit is its simplicity and ease of a limited palette and just one brush – details be damned! When I’m by the car When weight isn’t an issue and I can “bring it all,” I find that things can get far more complicated with too many options. To keep things at bay, I limit what I bring to what can fit in one small plastic bin and one daypack (if I want to walk a little ways). And, more often than not, I’ll paint with gouache rather than watercolor.
Whether painting from a mountaintop or a parking-lot, I’m focused on capturing the light, mood, and joy of the moment!
* This article will appear in the November 2025 newsletter for the California Watercolor Association.  There is nothing like getting a painting right the first time around but we all know that’s just not how it goes. (This is especially true if I’m planning to enter a painting into a show when stakes are high and brushstrokes become tight!) If you’re like me you have stacks upon stacks of “failed” paintings just waiting to be gessoed over.
In rock climbing, the term “redpoint” means to successfully climb a route after multiple attempts, with no falls or rests on the rope. A good friend of mine, and fellow CWA member often tells me how I’m “so good at redpointing a painting”: that I can just keep painting the same thing over and over again until I feel like I get it just right. I couldn’t help but laugh at the analogy – but she’s right! Redpointing a painting is definitely part of my process. I have attempted some studio paintings three, maybe four times before I’ve landed on “the one.” At first glance, repeating a painting might feel redundant—or even like a step backward. Shouldn’t every artwork be a fresh, new challenge? But for me, painting the same subject more than once is one of the ways I learn: I can test colors, techniques, and even mediums – often times, I’ll try a painting in watercolor and then in gouache! I also find that I’m able to refine my technique with practice, allowing me to apply paint more quickly and with confidence because I know exactly what I want to do and when the time is right, especially with watercolor. More importantly, with each attempt, I deepen my understanding of what’s important and what details I can leave out. |
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