It is said that you need to do a skill for 10,000 hours to become an expert or master of that skill or talent. I have been playing the piano since I started kindergarten, and I started that when I was 4, almost 5 years old. So I have been playing the piano for almost my entire life.

One thing I have come to realize though, is that once you have reached that 10,000 hours, maybe you have mastered the skill, but there is never a time you can stop practicing and challenging yourself, or you lose that skill. Don’t worry, I still play the piano, I’m not quitting. But, I don’t play with the frequency that I used to for sure. I have to really remember to play to keep up my ability to do so.

The other thing I have learned is that even though you’ve mastered a skill, there is still more to learn. I am able to challenge myself, whether it’s through a new piece of music, or learning something about music that I didn’t know before. Sometimes I come across symbols or time signatures that I haven’t seen or tried to play before, so there is always more to learn.

I have found that to be true in art as well. I don’t think I’m at 10,000 hours yet. But, I do love to look back and see that I have progressed. There is more refinement in my art, more detail. I have been doing it long enough now that I have found ways to speed up the process on some subjects such as flowers.; and I have found that I am more capable, or maybe it’s more confident, probably both, when I start a painting I am more confident that I will be able to complete it.

I don’t question how to hold my brush, how much water I should add, how to fix a blemish, what colors to use, or how the colors will interact with each. Well, I don’t question that as much as I used to anyway. But, because of that confidence, I had started to feel stuck, like progress just wasn’t coming as quickly. I get that way with the piano sometimes. But in piano, all I have to do is get a new piece of music to learn, and then I’m off and running again.

25 days ago I decided to set myself a new painting goal. 30 minutes a day, every single day, a small piece of paper, 6×6 or 5×7 (or whatever small pieces I have laying around), and not to paint just stuff I was familiar with, or comfortable with. The other part of this goal was that I couldn’t trace the picture. I’ve wanted to get better at drawing, so I decided I had to sketch the image myself.

I follow Emily Olson art, and she is always saying, “You have to log your brush miles.” I have been trying to do that better, and this challenge has helped me to get those brush miles regularly. I have also found that the 30 minutes, when I relax and start to get into the subject matter, flies by and I will often take 45 minutes or more just because now I’m relaxed and excited to be there painting.

I have not gotten every single day. I paint at night after everyone is gone to bed. I missed the day we took my son to the airport, we were gone until the early morning hours and I wasn’t going to then go paint. I missed the next day after that as well, and I’m not even sure what happened there. So I have 23 little paintings.

I have been hanging them up above my painting table as I go along, and I have found this to be a great reminder to paint as well as motivating to fill the space. I have also found it fun to watch my family walk over to the wall to check out what I’ve painted recently and then come and comment back to me their thoughts.

I committed to myself to do this for 30 days. I have adjusted it to 30 paintings since I missed a couple days, but I am almost done. I have been debating on what to do to continue as I have really enjoyed these fun, small, no pressure paintings and I need to log my brush miles. I may continue to fill the whole wall, I have debated on doing another 30 painting challenge, but film and add them to my YouTube channel just for fun. I haven’t been doing very good on my YouTube goal I set this year. In 7 days I’ll have to figure out how I will proceed!