A Painting A Day

“Breaking Ice,” pastel by Bethany Kerwin.

A painting a day keeps the winter blues away.

This was the adage of a Sturgeon Bay painters group whose commitment to creating art everyday for a month will conclude with a mini art show on Saturday, Feb. 14.

The group, simply named the Sturgeon Bay Painting-A-Day Group, was the creation of self-taught artist and Sturgeon Bay native Pat Olson. After reading about a similar event, in which a group of artists was challenged to each create one painting per day for a month, Olson approached a group of painters with whom she gets together regularly.

“I just asked whoever was around and they were all very excited to do it,” Olson said.

On board were eight Sturgeon Bay artists, including Olson, Sarah Bradley, Karen DeNoto, Faith Frykman, Lynn Gilchrist, Bethany Kerwin, Madonna Siles and Barbara Sweeney. The Sturgeon Bay Painting-A-Day Challenge was born.

“Triumphant Trio” watercolor by Barbara Sweeney.

The rules for each artist were loose: create one small painting each day and post it to the group’s Facebook page. Of course, if an artist missed one day, they were allowed to make up for it by posting two paintings the following day. At the time, the main focus of the challenge was to banish the winter blues.

On Jan. 5, the challenge began. Each artist set their sights on their chosen medium and applied it to their chosen substrate. When the work was complete, it was posted to the social media site and from there, the popularity of the project exploded.

“All of the sudden, we were getting ‘likes’ and comments from all over the place,” Olson said.

These comments were exclamations of beauty toward the paintings. Some artists chose to stick with a certain theme, like Sarah Bradley with her “Blue Bottle series,” Pat Olson with her paintings of farm scenery, or Madonna Siles with her colorful acrylic and oil pastel renditions of Door County’s natural scenery.

Others displayed a true commitment to their medium of choice, be it Karen DeNoto and Faith Frykman’s dedication to oils, Lynn Gilchrist’s colorful acrylic paintings with a primary focus on fish, Bethany Kerwin’s soft but vibrant pastel nature scenes (and some mixed media), and Barbara Sweeney’s watercolor paintings of barns and nature.

But among those comments were also, quite unexpectedly, requests to purchase pieces of art.

“We tried to paint everyday,” Olson said. “It was just a fun idea. We never thought this would all happen.”

“Chubby Chickie” oil bar by Faith Frykman.

With inspiring comments rolling in daily and increasing requests to purchase, Olson and the other seven artists decided to put on a mini art show at the Artists Guild in Sturgeon Bay in mid-February, shortly after the final paintings were to be put up.

The paintings vary in size, but are mostly small (ranging in size from 3” x 3” to 13” x 18”) and inexpensive.

“Everything’s going to be a variety,” Olson said. “It’s going to be mostly small stuff, mostly inexpensive. Nothing’s going to be hundreds and hundreds of dollars. The show is going to be very casual; we’re going to have things propped up against the wall, on the tables. It’s not going to be a show that’s hung.”

The show and its inspiring challenge will not only serve as a promotion for a subsection of talented Sturgeon Bay artists, but will give Door County residents and visitors a chance to own original pieces of art inspired by this area’s scenery and a desire for the warm spring days ahead.

The Painting A Day mini art show will be held from 10am – 4pm on Saturday, Feb. 14 in the lower level of the Artists Guild, 215 N. 3rd Ave. in Sturgeon Bay. Art will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. To view the paintings, visit Facebook.com/SturgeonBayPainters or sturgeonbaystudios.com.