Art Goals for 2026

This is January, the first month of a new year. So I want to share my art goals for 2026 in this post.

Usually, I also report on the goals for the previous year. This year, that report is short due to illness, so I’m including that report in each category.

Art Goals for 2026

Artwork

New Work

I have one simple goal this year: Finish one or two exhibit worthy pieces. The idea is to finish something that can be entered in the Miniature Art Society of Florida‘s annual exhibit for 2027, so the pieces have be 4 x 6 inches or smaller and properly framed.

I also hope to have something to enter in the Small Works Squared exhibit at the Carriage Factory Gallery right here in Newton, Kansas. I saw this year’s show and there was no colored pencil artwork. Not a single piece. I would like to change that in 2026.

Artwork From 2025

Last year, one of my goals was to finish as many unfinished pieces as possible. That didn’t work out. I didn’t finish any of those pieces.

I did cut one of them up into ACEOs (3-1/2″ by 2-1/2″ art), and finished two of those, but that’s the best I could do.

I finished one portrait for a client in 2025. Sego Lily Olena, below.

(I also wrote a series of posts documenting the drawing process. You can read those beginning here if you missed them. Each post in the series contains links to all the other posts.)

Other Art

In addition to the Sego Lily Olena portrait, I finished eleven small format works 8 x 10 or smaller. Now before you think that’s a great total for the year, let me add that all of them were adult coloring pages, or other non-fine art subjects. I even did some stippling compositions!

Connect the Dots is a miniature piece drawn on scrap paper. It’s also the piece for which I used a lot of stippling, hence the title.

I also created a total of 47 ACEOs during the year. I confess that I have the ACEO group to thank for that. There were some months when one or two ACEOs was all I could manage. I probably wouldn’t have done those if it hadn’t been for the ACEO group and it’s challenges. After all, I run the ACEO group; how would it look if I didn’t have a contribution?

My absolute favorite ACEO for the year is this miniature portrait of Bing, one of the Kitten Posse from 2018. I did it on Bristol Vellum, and I printed the line drawing directly on the Bristol. I printed it too dark, so was unable to cover all the lines, but I still like this portrait.

(There is also a tutorial on this piece, which you can read here.)

By the way, does the ACEO group sound like fun? You can join for free here. We’d love to have you!

Publishing

My publishing goals for 2026 are simple. One blog post every week, one updated old post every week, one weekly newsletter every week, and one issue of CP Magic! every month. That’s almost automatic because I work on them every week; sometimes every day.

Twelve issues of CP Magic! were published in 2025. Twelve more are on the schedule for 2026. The good news for me is that ten of them already have featured artists. Yes, that means I still need two more, so if you’re interested, let me know.

I had set the goal of publishing tutorials again in 2025 and I did that. I had hoped to publish four, but managed two. Pasture Patriarch and Old Red Barn were both published as Artist’s Journal Tutorials.

One thing I did differently was publish two versions of each one. The Artist’s Journals are in-depth and include the thought process behind choosing and preparing images, and my comments along the way.

The other version is a basic tutorial. The basic versions are for those of you who want just the step-by-steps.

Behind the Scenes

I’m surprised at the numbers of ACEOs and other artwork I did last year. To be honest, I didn’t think there was that much.

But a lot of it was adult coloring pages and abstract works (ACEOs mostly). Why didn’t I do more finished work? Why only one horse portrait and no finished landscapes?

The reason is health. In June, I picked up a non-COVID corona virus for five days. After the virus was gone, the cough persisted and got worse. I was eventually diagnosed with walking pneumonia. The long and short of this is that I just didn’t have the focus or energy to do more detailed work most of the summer. Doing art that “didn’t matter” to me was the only way to keep the pencils moving.

That’s why I was so happy to come across all the coloring pages I’d made years ago but never done anything with. I could essentially doodle when I felt like it and not worry about it the rest of the time. It was an answer to prayer! French Curves (above) is the first one I did and is still one of my favorites.

That’s also why there were no monthly studio news reports for September, October, and November. There just wasn’t much to report!

That will change this year!

So What’s My Big Art Goal for 2026?

Most of the art goals for 2026 are routine. Twelve issues of the magazine. A couple of new tutorials. One or two ACEOs a month (for the ACEO group).

So I think the biggest goal for this year is producing two exhibit-worthy pieces 4 x 6 inches or smaller.

In the back of my mind is the idea of working on a larger piece, too. I have a full sheet of white Pastelmat fastened to a large drawing board. It’s waiting for me to put something on it. I’ve thought about cutting it up a time or two, but have resisted that urge so far. Why? There’s the sense that something is waiting to be put on it; something big.

I just don’t yet know what it is!

My Art Goals for 2026 The Bottom Line

If I’ve learned nothing else during 2025, it’s that the best laid plans can be side-tracked by unexpected events.

So I share these goals with you with the certain knowledge that I have no idea what might upset them during the year.

However, it is my plan to make myself accountable to you by getting back to the monthly studio news reports, beginning with a report for December 2025. Be looking for that next week, if all goes well.

In the meantime, ready, set…

Go into 2026!

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