#20for20 Spotlight: Amanda Smith

Amanda Smith painted regularly but often found herself stuck in procrastination, spending more time overthinking than actually painting. To break this cycle, she joined the #20for20 Challenge with a simple goal: start and finish a painting every day in about 25 minutes. In the process, she discovered that growth doesn’t just come from perfection—it comes from showing up, staying curious, and adapting to what the process throws at you. You can learn more about Smith on Instagram.

Walking into the Challenge, what were you hoping to explore?

Going into the challenge I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to explore. I already had a daily painting routine but spent too much time procrastinating and too little time actually painting. I wanted to explore ways to spend less time locked away alone in my playroom by being more productive. I wanted to relax more while painting and worry less about the finishing of a painting by understanding that not every painting had to be a masterpiece. Fast daily painting seemed like a good way to explore these aims. I also wanted to learn as much as I could from the other participants and spend time with other artists.

Did the parameters you used help you explore more deeply? Why?

Fast daily painting let me explore new ways of working. I elected to paint for a maximum of 20 mins plus 5 mins of tweaking at the end. Prep time for sketching, washes etc was not included in that time. I decided to work on an 5x7 hardwood panel and use 3 primary colours and a dark and a light and used a 1/4in flat brush only.

I changed up a few of the parameters as I went along. Being flexible proved to be important for me as I felt hampered by some of my early decisions. By relaxing some of my rules, I was able to remove the stress and still achieve close to what I had initially nominated.

I could see some other participants were great at doing exactly what they said they wanted to do but for me being open to the possibility of slightly altering my parameters meant I got more from the challenge.

What benefits did you find working daily even if not necessarily for a long time? (learning benefits, anxiety benefits, just actually doing it benefits?)

I already painted 5 days a week prior to the challenge but with the challenge I committed to true daily painting where you start and finish a new piece every day. I paint daily as I find it hastens progress and learning. Nothing improves your ability as an artist more than doing lots of it.

I discovered I learned things whether I spent 4 hours or 25 minutes. I learned to consciously notice what I was doing and apply insights from the day before to my next work. Things that worked, I used more. When I struggled I had to try different solutions. Painting daily meant I could apply those insights instantly so helping to make new habits.

During the challenge I also found that the freedom of knowing even if I wasn’t pleased with my current work, tomorrow was a new day with a new painting opportunity. This helped me to not be so precious in believing every painting had to be a winner. I just had to paint quickly and get my work posted on FB and tomorrow was a new opportunity.

Any days jump out as having aha moments? Could you share what those were?

Around day 5/6, I realised I like details in my painting. My painting time was sneaking up and my paintings had lots of details. I thought I needed to reduce the detail to get faster. By accepting detail was something I enjoyed, I could relax and focus on other ways to get faster that still allowed me to include the bits I liked. This was a pivotal moment in my challenge. Keep what you enjoy and look for other solutions.

I note that Kelly explained this to me in one of her comments to me. She’s a very wise host! I realised then that it’s important to raise areas where I was consistently struggling. Voicing my concerns meant others could make suggestions to help me overcome that problem.

It was also clear that the more I engaged with other participants the more I got from the challenge. I loved seeing the progress other people made. I loved encouraging people. I loved recognising people’s work and hearing about their work. It was amazing to be immersed in a like minded group who were striving to do many of the same things I was striving to achieve.

You did your daily work in about 20 minutes. Why did you decide to approach the Challenge that way time wise?

I decided on a 20/25 min paint session as I was finding I was spending more time procrastinating and thinking about ways forward in my painting than actually painting. Forcing an artificial stop at the end of 20/25 mins meant I would have to get paint on the panel fast. There wasn’t time for procrastination if I wanted to have something ready to post each day. I would have to stop fussing and just paint while at my easel.

I also wanted to stop feeling that every painting had to be a masterpiece. That thinking meant I could work on the last 10% of a painting for hours and I really wasn’t sure I was making much difference to the end product. I paint for fun. I paint because I love learning new things and spending hours fussing over minor changes wasn’t fun.

Did the 20 minute max time frame change how you had to approach each piece?

To achieve a finished painting quickly, I had to change up how I worked. Most importantly, I thoroughly planned before I picked up my brush. I made decisions on what to include or eliminate and I considered how I could get the impact I wanted with less detail than I was used to applying. I also cropped out details I thought would take me too long. I looked at key colours I needed and I thought about the painting order.

Prior to the challenge I continually made decisions about ways forward in a painting while I was painting. I’d stop and spend time contemplating the way forward.

With proper planning, a lot of the key decisions were already made. I found when I started painting, I could just paint. I relaxed more. I didn’t feel the need to stop and consider what next. The work flowed. And I was able to get a credible result in about a quarter of the time I’d been previously taking. More fun in less time and many times I actually liked the resulting painting. What a win!

When it’s just 20 minutes, there's a risk in expanding out the time until you’ve “finished a painting” or got something you like enough to share with the world. What is the benefit to you to really hold to the 20 minutes?

Having to stop a painting as time was up and post it on FB when I didn’t feel it was complete or when I thought it needed more work, turned out to be an unexpected bonus result of the challenge for me.

The act of posting my work and seeing it miniaturised on FB helped me to see the painting as a whole (more so than just a photo alone). Often I found I liked the freshness and rawness of the incomplete piece.

Comments from other participants also made me reassess the painting. I learned that sometimes I’m not a good judge of my own work You see faults that others don’t notice. I also learned perhaps there are places to finish a work before I might otherwise have finished it.

There was also the benefits you get from making a thumbnail painting. I learned what to do more of and what not to do without the need of actually finishing the painting and I could carry these learnings to my next project.

Perhaps more importantly I learned not everything has to be perfect. There’s a lot of learning in giving something a go without feeling it needs to be finished to a high standard. The failure or unfinished piece has as much learning, maybe more, than the hero piece.

How did your expectations need to adjust to the 20 minute time frame?

Fast painting forces many changes in expectations. Most importantly I learned to loosen my ego’s grip on what I presented to the group.

Painting fast with limited time means you often don’t reach a standard you might have liked to achieve. It’s also hard as we have seasoned artists through to beginners in the group and you can’t help but compare yourself. I found that tough at first- it meant I did want to put up my best work even if it took longer.

Everyone has good and bad paintings. It’s easier to present your unfinished work when everyone shares their unfinished work too and it was obvious everyone was learning a lot regardless of whether each painting worked or not.

I learned the challenge is about YOU exploring new ways to do things and trying out alternatives. It’s all about how you can learn and grow. Watching the progress others were making soon convinced me that it was worth trying to stick to my parameters - old or newly found, throughout the 20 days. There are amazing learning opportunities available to us by doing the work, sticking to the things you want to explore and sharing your progress with the group even if the painting presented wasn’t great.

Radical change was evident in everyone’s work over the 20 days. It was an incredible joy watching and reading about the things people learned as they progressed through the challenge.

It’s uncomfortable and scary to think your work will be judged by others, especially if it’s not perfect, but there’s no judgement there. People are genuinely thrilled to see your progress and hear about your learnings from doing the painting. Knowing that means you can post the failure, talk about your difficulties and celebrate what you learned from that painting and receive feedback from others. You can be sure that whatever you’re feeling, others are feeling too.

How did you decide where in your day to put your 20? Could you talk about some of that math and then also how that time (or times) ended up working or not working?

I don’t work full time so finding the time and routine to paint wasn’t an issue. I planned that I’d do my sketch and prep mid morning and paint in the afternoon.

What actually happened was that I’d study the reference image over breakfast. I’d plan which image I was using, whether I wanted any cropping and how I wanted to place it on my panel. This took about 5 mins and proved to be so helpful. I found that I subconsciously thought about the painting as I was going about my day. I was actively starting my painting plan without needing to be in front of my easel.

Mid morning I’d sketch and prep for 10-15 mins and I’d paint around 2pm every day. And when I painted I had a pretty clear idea of how I wanted to paint and I was able to just paint without the usual procrastination. How freeing.

I was dedicated to my routine but others in the challenge were less rigid and managed painting while camping or away and I’d like to be able to learn how to paint while away from home or with many distractions going on in daily life too.

How and where did you keep your materials the same? (Surface, size/shape, brushes, paints, colors) How much did keeping your materials the same benefit the challenge but also a daily practice? How?

I used 3 paint colours through the challenge with a dark/white. This was surprisingly enjoyable- I felt hampered at the start but soon realised the benefit of really getting to know my colours and what they could achieve. I think it made me less fussy about colour- near enough was ok especially when painting fast. I learned to rely on my dark/light highlights more as my colours were more limited and I enjoyed the impact this had on my work.

I mostly stuck to a 5x7 hardwood panel. I hadn’t used hardwood before and loved it. It reduced the number of layers of colour and let me paint faster. I could usually knock out something recognisable on the smaller panel quite quickly.

I initially started with a 1/4in flat brush only but quickly added a larger brush for background coverage and occasionally used a liner brush for finer detail. I got a much greater understanding of what I could do with my 1/4in brush but also learned that having a good sharp flat that I looked after was crucial.

Caring for my brushes and not leaving them overnight in the dirty water was a big takeaway from the challenge. I couldn’t just leave them if I wanted a sharp flat and I couldn’t just grab another if my brush wasn’t right. I would like to find a better flat brush than the one I was using.

You decided to use the references from the Starter Pack. What did having someone else choose photos and you just followed give you as artist?

I really enjoyed using the daily reference photo. The photos were widely varied and I would have shied away from a few of them in my own painting practice. I initially thought I’d do something different if the reference seemed too hard or wasn’t of interest to me but quickly realized I’d get great benefit from attempting the ones I wanted to avoid. And the learning was like a lightning bolt for me. I realized how severely I had been limiting myself by only doing subjects I knew/felt safe painting. I quickly learned to trust my own abilities and paint what I was given and I was shocked at how well some turned out. I don’t know if I’d have realized that without the challenge. Nothing is off limits anymore. I can manage so much more than I was allowing myself to manage and I wasn’t even aware I was holding myself back.

I also enjoyed seeing how we all tackled the same subject. Painting fast means you rely on what you know and everyone’s personal style was very quickly evident. It was so enjoyable to look at the different ways people tackled the same subject and also to learn tricks about how to manage various aspects of the painting from the work of others. I liked being one of the first to paint each subject because I was in an earlier time zone - I was able to just paint but I can see I’d have got benefits from seeing how others did it and being influenced by them too.

At the same time, some participants painted their own subjects and those who stuck to one particular topic really impressed on me how you can improve your work quickly and learn so much by painting the same/similar subjects over and over again.

What was the most helpful mindset for you to try and keep during the 20for20? Was there anything that was useful to remind yourself as you showed up each day? What was that and why?

During the challenge I constantly reminded myself that it didn’t matter if my painting didn’t work as what was important was just having a go, producing something I could share and learning from what I was doing.

To paint fast I had to let go of my ego and just paint during my allotted time. I didn’t have time to question what I’d done. I just had to get paint on the panel. It was a relief to not fret about whether I could achieve what I wanted to achieve and ponder endlessly about ways forward. I just painted.

What advice would you give to someone who is doing the Challenge for the first time?

I had so many lightbulb moments during this challenge. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned artist, throwing yourself in is the crucial ingredient. Commit to being involved with your art for at least 20 mins every day for 20 days or as many days as you can.

Having clear concise goals helped me during the challenge. I had things I wanted to learn and while I altered some of my parameters slightly, those clear goals helped me commit to sticking with the challenge.

The best advice I can give to challenge participants is to post everything in the group and get involved and celebrate every participant’s wins. It was immensely satisfying to watch everyone’s progress and cheer them on from the sidelines. I loved seeing how each individual tackled the allocated reference and I love seeing how people who stuck to other topics advanced. I learned so much from how people worked. I’ve got so many things I’d like to try now. I guess that’s another way of saying stay curious about everything.

Creatives often struggle with the lack of feedback about their work. I know it’s a constant source of frustration for me. I loved seeing how the group celebrated or commiserated with an individual. I loved having the ability to post something I struggled with and get suggestions on how I could try something different or other people struggled with the same thing or how actually it wasn’t as bad as I first thought. I loved the freedom of knowing that I could post a work I didn’t particularly like but met my goals of painting faster and procrastinating less and I enjoyed sharing my findings from doing the work.

This is one of my biggest celebrations from doing the challenge actually. The people who shared their incomplete, difficult experience or just downright ‘chuck it in the bin’ work, learned hugely from the experience of doing the work. It’s the thing I’d like to encourage participants to do from the start. Post all your work and tell the group about what you learned. What you like or hate and what you would do next time. I promise that others are sharing your frustration and will learn from your experience.

The other side to that is make sure you make comments and like other people’s posts. Get involved. Talk to each other. Encourage each other. Ask questions about how or what others are doing. The more you get involved in the FB group, the more you will learn and the more joy you will get from this journey.

Learn more about the next #20for20 here.