Welcome to 2026 the Year of Your Best Art Yet
- Joe Milligan
- Jan 7
- 2 min read
I’m paging through my well used sketch/note/journal book… it’s a few years old now and its looking ratty but there are still some pages to fill. There are sketches, value studies, teaching commitments, student goals and progress notes, phone numbers, new contacts, notes from museum visits, gallery inventories, random thoughts and ideas. The edges are worn, the covers are a collection of museum passes, and the spine is broken from having a pencil and eraser jammed inside.
There’s the good, the bad and the ugly… but it tells the story of my continuing journey. So, my advice to start the year… start an art sketch book journal. Put something in it every day. An entry may be a simple line sketch of something that catches your eye to a multi-page run-on sentence and detailed drawing of your next masterpiece but make an entry every day.
Here are a few “joe-isms” from last year…
Work hard on a painting for a few hours but step away. You’ll see things differently when you come back… the need for a value change, a missing shadow or highlight, a skewed perspective.
If you’re not loving the process you’re not having fun and it will show in your painting.
Get used to making mistakes and accept it. That’s how we get better.
Draw, draw, draw.
On a 2025 personal level, after years of trying, I achieved Signature Status in the Philadelphia Watercolor Society, my impressionistic painting of a sailboat won the Baltimore Watercolor Society Award of Excellence, some paintings sold and many more didn’t but it’s the “art of painting” and the friendships along the way that count.
I’m working on my 2026 workshop and teaching schedule for studio and plein air. If you’re interested in private, semi-private or group lessons let me know.
I hope 2026 brings many exciting things into your art world. Make it Happen. If I can help let me know.
As always, if you want to be removed from this mailing list drop me a note.
Keep Pushing Those Brushes! – joe
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