If you follow my art on social media, you know that on January 1, 2024 I started the ‘Drawing A Day For Good’ project.   With the start of the last new year I offered the public unframed watercolor and ink artworks for sale each day at the price of $100. The profits from were donated to good causes that I choose.

We live in interesting and difficult times.  I am grateful for my life, my home, my art and my family. I understand that it is important to pay attention to what is happening in the world around us and to do what we can to work to make the world better for everyone. I wish I were in a position to offer support  for others who are in more difficult circumstances. In an effort to resolve my two concerns (my mounting pile of small drawings and the limits of living on a fixed income) I decided to offer an unframed watercolor and ink artworks for sale and donate the money

I decided to put my portfolio full of demonstration paintings from my 25+ years of teaching to better use than sitting in a portfolio gathering dust.  I have saved them because many of them are lovely, but they are not finished watercolor paintings.  I gave myself permission to draw into them with mixed media inks to bring in the details needed to complete them. These small works, usually completed in one sitting, are a lovely variation from my normal painting process where it can sometimes take more than a month to complete a painting.

For all of 2024 I drew almost every evening as a visual meditation aimed at inducing a sense of ‘flow’.  In addition to my regular studio work it became the norm for me to sit down to draw into the watercolor samplers. I looked at the (often) abstract watercolor samplers and ‘found ‘an image in them that I could draw out to resolve them.  I have learned a lot about my creative process by giving myself permission to draw almost every day as a visual meditation. Doing meditative drawings regularly has become a valuable practice for me.

I originally planned to do the project for 30 days but January 2024 came and went and I decided to continue for a while since its still fun. I kept drawing and drawing, and soon the idea of continuing to post a drawing a day for an entire year seemed possible, so I did. Twelve months later the project allowed me to realize my goal AND put funds toward good causes of my choosing. In 2024 I created and posted 366 drawings (leap year) for sale.  So far almost half of them have been sold allowing me to donate the profits to good causes. (Thank you to all my new collectors that made it possible for this to happen!)

Starting on 2025  I will continue the process without the commitment to post a finished piece EVERY day. I still have quite a stack of teaching samplers from my 25+ years of sharing my love of watercolor through workshops and classes. I will continue draw into the watercolor teaching samplers I have created and collected. I may or may not post daily for periods of time, but I will continue to occasionally share the pieces I do and I will continue to use the funds I earn from the project to support good causes of my choosing.

I still have over half of the pieces I created available in the retitled ‘Drawing For Good’ collection.  Let me know if one of these drawings are meant to be yours. They will continue to be offered at below their real market value at $100 apiece, unframed and unmatted. If you miss purchasing a piece during the 2024 ‘Drawing A Day for Good” project, keep watching…Maybe you will see something that should be yours in the project as I continue to add works occasionally.

If you would like to see all the works you can go here see the rest of the Drawing A Day For Good Collection!

Or on Instagram at #drawingadayforgood
© 2024 Helen R. Klebesadel