Today I want to talk about my art studio. After some debate with my neat self (who rarely wins), I decided to post a photo of my main watercolor painting area. I could have spent the day tidying up for a nice picture instead of writing about it, but I decided to let you see exactly where "the sausage is made" . I am a “I have to see it” kind of person, and my office was the same when I was teaching… everything in plain view…. just under everything else!! I agree with those who say that “a clean desk is the sign of a sick mind” and that a messy desk is actually a sign of genius! I am very lucky to have a studio for my art. This allows me to have everything in one space, and to be able to leave things out so I can paint when I feel like it, and for as long or as little time as I have. Watercolor is a great medium for that, because even if it dries in the palette or on the brushes, it just needs water to revive or clean it. I often stop in the middle of a painting, feeling that I would be better off taking a break than pushing on and possibly ruining it. Watercolor is perfect for that, unless of course you are going for certain effects, in which case you have to work quickly or without stopping until you are done. My studio is on the small side, only about 8 x 11 feet. It is on the second floor of my house, in a mezzanine with a sloping ceiling and lots of natural light. The biggest windows face south, so the light isn’t perfect for art, and it does get very warm up there in the hottest days of summer. When I started using the space, it housed a single bed which was used for occasional visitors. I have my main painting area, which is nothing more than a 6 foot plastic folding table whose main function used to be to set out extra food at big family gatherings. I yearn for a real drawing table, with a tilting top and t-square ruler, but I don’t have the space for it, and I would lose a lot of flat storage space that I really need. In watercolor, I normally work flat or at a very slight incline, in which case I use a little wooden ‘bridge’ to prop up the top of my piece. When I started using oils and pastels, I needed an easel, which I ‘commissioned’ from my friendly “handyman”. The space for working standing up isn’t ideal, as I can’t back up very far to get a better look at my work, but it will have to do! My handyman also made me a small pan fr the easel to catch pastel dust, another shelf to add some flat storage space, some knock down table easels for displaying at art shows, and he is currently working on some floating frames for my oil paintings. It is great when your handyman is your very supportive and very handy husband! Except for an IKEA office drawer unit which I bought to store matting boards and some art (mostly studies), all of the storage units I use have been “borrowed” from other rooms around the house. I have a bookcase containing art books, my supply of oil paints, canvas boards, drying oil paints, a few framed paintings, and small empty frames waiting for their turn to be called in to action, a small drawer unit with framing materials and art show supplies, a tall plastic drawer tower with my extra painting and drawing supplies, and a big tall wardrobe unit with shelves laboring under the weight of supplies including watercolor paper pads, blank cards, sketchbooks, as well as supplies from other crafts or techniques I have tried in the past (jewelry making, scrapbooking, zentangling, Christmas ornaments, etc). Every now and then I try to go through and thin some of it out, but it goes too much against my “that might come in handy some day” nature. In one corner I have quite a number of watercolor frames, some new, some recycled, that are patiently waiting to display their own masterpiece! I have a very handy adjustable table on casters that can serve multiple purposes. I also have an old office chair on which I can easily wheel around from one side of the room to the other, which is one advantage of having a small room! I love my studio and affectionately call it my “garret”. It isn’t perfect, but it works. It is crowded, but everything is within easy reach. I have nice windows from which I can look at the woods, and I have a display speaker if I want to listen to music. I have a “natural daylight” lamp to paint by, as well as some more recent acquisitions, a “ring light” to make it easier to photograph my work, and a sturdy tablet stand to display photo references while I paint at the easel. The little wall space I have is adorned with color charts and a favorite thrift store find, a framed trio of prints by my idol Andrew Wyeth. Hopefully soon we will be back to a stage when we can visit other people’s homes, and I would love to have you visit my studio! Just one person at a time!!
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AuthorMy name is Claire Bureau. Archives
March 2023
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