I was at a loss for how to place my kachina today - a potentially bad sign since this is only day two and I am lost on ideas...  I decided to add some other things to help inspire my work.  This scene includes my stationary easel and some beads that I brought home from my 2012 trip to India.  Though I enjoy parts of this image, the composition needs work and that is supposed to be my focus during these "one a day"s so... less junk tomorrow, more compositional thought.     

I spent July 25-29 in New Mexico.  Before leaving on the 29th, my friend Meranda and I visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe.  One of the galleries contained several paintings of katsinam, or kachinas, created by O'Keeffe.  I had never seen these images before and felt drawn to her representation of a single object in various compositional settings.  I decided that my last souvenir for the trip would be a kachina which would become the subject for my "one a day" painting project.  

Today, I went to The Home Depot, got my wood, and returned home to sand the edges in preparation for the start of my month long project.  My start date was *supposed* to be August 1, but after I sat down next to my pile of freshly sanded wood, I got excited and decided it was ok to begin a little early.  This is my first experience painting on raw birch.  It is also my first time painting with oils in 18 months - and prior to that, it had been at least 10 years since I had used oils as a medium.  

My hope is to become more comfortable working small and to improve my eye for composition.  Day one was a positive experience and I am now even more excited to undertake the project.