In the Studio Week 1

Well, I've been able to spend my first week in the newly resurfaced studio.    I had an added pleasure of having an art friend join me for two days to paint alongside me.   Painting is a solitary profession or craft so it's nice to have a like soul to share the opportunity.   Jane' s Perspective says it's fun to paint with someone else but equally important just to get your butt in there and paint.   Like my husband says, I get a little "bitchy" if I go too long without painting.  Here's a picture of what I was able to accomplish in acrylic paint that week - still needs some touching up on the smaller pieces, big one is 4' X 5' and it's done, the one on the easel only has it's underpainting AND the floor is a work in progress ( first spatters are already there!).

Studio Tour

This is the second corner of my "new" studio.   

Here's my moveable easel and my two rolling art paint bins.   The one on the left holds all my oil paint and the one on the right holds all my acrylics.   Both bins were Fred's  Dollar Store finds and I'm able to categorize my colors drawer by drawer.   The artwork on the easel are small oil paintings in progress and the artwork on the wall and below  in the wooden divider are my "Do-Overs".   These are thrift store artwork "re-purposed" in the style of the artist David Irvine.  I just love the humor of re-directing art that has been cast away into something fun.   Here's one of my favorite "Do-Overs".   I call it "Savvy?"   Just the idea of a stoic iconic boy in blue in the classic style with his "friend" no doubt whispering some trouble making scheme  over his shoulder.  

Next to this corner between the two front windows is my writing and inspiration area.   My books are full of history of art, or how-to's for painting techniques, and some are just for ideas or to use as a resource.   If I do nothing else for the day in the studio I hope to be able to just lose myself in art by pouring through these books.

Above the books is one of my largest paintings from a show I did after I returned from a trip to Italy.  I have chosen not to sell this piece yet.   It still reminds me of the day we saw the Sistine Chapel and Coliseum in Rome.   It was a rainy day but as I took the reference photo the clouds just broke up to reveal some clear blue sky.   And speaking of large artwork the next two corners of the room have two 4' X 5' canvases ready for one commissioned piece and a piece for my next showing in Gatlinburg, Tn. 

In this picture you'll see I  have a  tv stand on which I've placed my lights that I can roll anywhere I need it in the studio. On it's shelf are all my paint brushes in cases or boxes by size and palette paper and wooden and plastic pallettes.   The easel in this photo was a give away by an artist friend who had it made specifically for large pieces.   The Coke machine is non working and has been a sorta thorn in my studio side for years - too heavy to move, too broken to use or sell.   So it's just décor at this point. 👎

This corner shows two things, the other 4' X 5' canvas which I have now hung directly on the wall and will paint on it at that location and a desk I found at the Goodwill for $3.50 that holds my glass pallet and more painting supplies like mediums and paper towels and  palette knives.   It rolls wherever I need it.  So that totals three areas in which I can paint.   I just roll the palette and light tables to whichever canvas I choose to work on allowing me to let one piece dry as I work or prep  another.

The final wall of the studio has all the odds and ends from papers, sketch books, markers, pastels, old photos of past shows and artwork, extra tubes of paint, colored pencils, and watercolors.   It also holds all the memorabilia from the gallery I owned in the early 2000's and teaching materials for my workshops.   The paintings above are just some of my favorites, a Beale Street palette knife piece, a painting from my trip to Italy, a portrait of my husband and a portrait of my sons.   Smaller pieces on easels are a portrait of my youngest son, a landscape where we used to go camping a lot, a small Do-Over and a wooden plaque that my oldest son made for me one Christmas.   Fun pieces like this will surround me and keep me from being lonely as I work.   Art can be a rather lonely profession but if it's in you to paint you'll suffer more from not releasing your creativity than you would bottling it up cause you don't want to be alone.    

My "New" Studio

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.   I turned 65 yesterday so today I begin a new chapter with a newly decorated and sorted out studio.   I'm ready to paint full time, full steam ahead.   Let me show you my new studio and share some studio set up ideas with you.   Now all of this is done on the "cheap" so you won't find thousands of dollars worth of equipment but you'll find more along the lines of tens of dollars used wisely and many time repurposed or doing double duty.   Here's the first corner.

I'm lucky enough to be able to use an enclosed two car garage at my house so that I can spread out to work on my artwork.   The room was enclosed from the get go when we built the house and served as the kid's playroom.   Well, they're up and grown so now it's mine (insert evil "hee hee hee" here).   To the left in this picture you see part of the sliding glass door.   We live on 10 acres abounding with deer that sometimes like to come within three feet of that window and just stare in at me as I work.   This particular wall is covered with OPA (Other People's Art).  I have a Kentucky Antique store find in the upper left hand corner - haven't a clue who the artist was but I love the depiction of an artist at work.   To the right of that piece is a painting my dad did of me in my little room.   Of course it has a place of honor due to the sentiments of the piece.   That's my little bed.   I still have the headboard to it.   It had little drawers in the headboard where I hid candy as a child.   He's painted me on my knees praying which I'm not sure where that came from - I'm a lay on my back in bed and pray to God thru the ceiling kind of gal but again, I like the sentiment.   The piece below also has an honored space.   It was painted by my youngest son, Lucien Scott Croy, when he was in high school.   He is colorblind and doesn't paint much anymore.   He prefers to work in charcoal and now, over 10 years later, has a one man showing of his work at the Playhouse in Memphis, Tn.   But let's not get me to bragging too much right now - you can check out his work for yourself on his facebook page.   Anyway, this painting was one of the first completed paintings he did working with his colorblindness.   The painting is of an atrium which used to be in a building in downtown Memphis.   It had green trees and a fountain with blue water and cream colored walls on the shops surrounding the atrium.   I particularly love this picture just because of the reds and oranges he "saw" that he painted in the green tree leaves, the yellows and greens he "saw" in the water and the green cast he gave the cream colored stucco walls.   Its' colors serve to inspire me to create my own surprising colors for the underpaintings of my artwork.   Below that painting is a palette shaped table (a really cool 40% off Hobby Lobby find) and two portfolios full of more OPA's.  And the stools you see were given to me by my art friend Lori Tooker.   I took off the cushions and reupholstered them using the cloth of old aprons that I've used that were covered with paint.   They look like abstract paintings on canvas on the seats of the chairs.   There's a cool re-use for you.   Old aprons for upholstery! 

     And before we leave this  little corner and it's ideas, here's where I get onto my Jane's Perspective Soap Box about OPA's!   ARTISTS SHOULD BUY FROM OTHER ARTISTS!!!  It's not shameful.   It's encouraging to other artists that you admire their work enough to purchase it.   And you help support other artists by buying their work that you admire, appreciate, need to own to inspire you, or just because it's something that you  know that you cannot do - no shame in that - you can't be successful (or shouldn't be successful) in every painting style.   For example, abstract art is not my forte - I tend to overwork them - but I have a great appreciation for someone who can do abstracts well.   So I buy wonderful pieces of abstract art when I can.   I also sorta suck at collage style pieces so I buy those also.   Then sometimes I just have artist friends who would gladly give me or trade me a piece which I have known to do but many times I insist on purchasing that piece.   I am always on the lookout for pieces by artists I know and love and have been fortunate enough to purchase originals, or prints, or just small pieces or studies when I couldn't afford the larger works, that made me one of their collectors.    Buying from other artists - as Martha Stewart would say, "It's a good thing".   Trust me.