More on art studios

I forgot to mention in my posting on studio storage that there are more studio setup tips on my Web site. For more photos, visit my studio, which is mostly furnished with inexpensive storage items from WalMart, Home Depot, Office Depot and Lowe's. I found a metal blueprint storage cabinet at a liquidation sale and had a case with shelves built around it. The drafting table now faces the window, looking out over my quarter-acre woods. The clutter hasn't changed much, though.

No doubt you have a tidy studio with everything in its place, right?

Come visit my art studio

Welcome to my studio. I've been doing a little clean-up and rearranging to clear the decks for working on illustrations for the new book. Floor space keeps getting smaller. I had to add a folding card table to pile research books, file boxes and such for the book. I'll be using my long tables to do some of the art work and don't want to keep moving stuff on and off the tables. My dream studio would have the office and computer in another room so I could devote the entire space to making art. Not gonna happen in this lifetime, but maybe next time around. This is a great workspace, though, and has good vibes. I'm going to see if I can photograph some of the art here under the full-spectrum lighting. I was reading my new camera instruction book last night and it says I can take a reading from a gray card and lock the exposure to shoot several pieces. It's worth a try. Any advice out there?

Here's a link to information about studio setup.

How to store your watercolor crayons

Here's a great container for watercolor crayons and Prismacolor sticks. The plastic jar shown is an empty coffee container that held Nescafe Taster's Choice gourmet instant coffee. Their regular instant coffee comes in a slightly taller jar. The labels can be easily removed and no coffee odor remains when the jar is washed. The lid snaps on tightly and pops open with a push-button. The frosted plastic sides are semi-transparent, so you can see what you stored inside the jar.

Lighting by the Kelvin Scale

When I set up my studio in 1983 I consulted a lighting specialist who advised me to buy fluorescent lighting that was 5500 degrees Kelvin. Whatever that meant. I followed his advice and found that the lighting was ideal for my color studies and painting and have recommended to my students that they use this kind of lighting in their studios. A couple of weeks ago I showed my class what a difference it made in my color charts to see them under a portable Ott-lite. The classroom has regular fluorescent lighting in it. I went to the Internet and found several charts, which I combined into the one you see here. The best lighting for artwork is in the range of 5000-6000K. The Color Rendering Index (CRI) should be 70 or higher for excellent, 60-70 for good color matching. Anything under 60 is unacceptable. There are several companies that make lights that meet these specifications. Google full spectrum lighting to look over your options. Expect to pay more, but expect them to last longer and give you much better results than incandescent or halogen quartz lamps.

References: www.3drender.com
cameraguild.com

Artists in their studios

New York Times art critic Roberta Smith roamed the rooms of the Metropolitan to discover paintings of artists at work, a behind-the-image look at the artistic process as revealed in the paintings of artists of the past. This fascinating illustrated article is worth your time. I thought it interesting that Smith's investigation was initiated by the realization that a painting she had originally thought depicted three women having tea was actually a woman artist, a model and a studio visitor.

You're welcome to visit my studio and the studios of other artists while you're browsing.

Studio Clean-up

Sort of. I've been moving piles of stuff around, pretending that I'm getting organized. My first task is to find all my notes for a new book project, outline needed early next week. They're here somewhere, but where? The new stack is growing higher, so maybe I've collected most of it. I'll be laboring on Labor Day on the outline.

My second task is to gather my materials for the New Jersey workshop and ship them off ASAP. I used to take them with me in a suitcase and a carryon, but I don't want to risk a hassle at the airport. I've been shipping ahead for a couple of years now and it has worked well so far. If my shipment goes out today, it probably won't ship until Tuesday, but it should still get there before the workshop starts on the following Tuesday. To be on the safe side I'll carry my class notes and copies of each handout with me.

My third task is to update my mailing list database. Ack! After almost four years of neglect, the stack of un-entered addresses has grown into a tower. While I haven't used the list for awhile, it is suddenly becoming necessary. It was hard to collect the names and addresses I needed for my book signing invitation (The New Creative Artist) and about a dozen were returned because I hadn't been updating the list. Yesterday I gritted my teeth and sorted through the stacks of receipts and class rosters to find the ones that need to be entered. My plan is to do a page or two each day. I've already made some headway--I'm up to 2004!

Prioritizing in my art studio

Now that the books are shipped, I need to get my studio in order. I'm trying to figure out what to tackle next. First on the list is a looming deadline for an article for "Watercolour Gazette," a Canadian publication. The article is mostly written and I'm getting some art together for the illustrations. I still haven't cleared out the boxes of books from my used-art-book sale. They must go, and soon. I'm tired of looking at them and they take up too much floor space. Hithergreen Center, where I teach my watercolor classes, has a small library, so I may donate the books to them if they want them. There are two unfinished watercolors on my drafting table, one of which is the poured painting I blogged about a few weeks ago. My desk is covered with miscellany, I have bills to pay, and on and on. However, when our daughter showed up unexpectedly with the Little Artist this afternoon, I gladly gave up my afternoon in the studio to play ball, read stories, and field hugs for a couple of hours. I've been smiling broadly ever since they were here. They made my day.

Selling used art books

Last week was pretty intense, getting my studio ready for my open-house-and-used-art-book-sale. The studio needed a little shake-up anyway. So when we cleaned the garage the weekend before, I just brought in the crates of books I had stored out there when I stopped selling books on eBay. I had a nice little following for my books on eBay for quite awhile, but when they moved the category I couldn't seem to connect with my customers, so I gave it up. (Does anybody know a good category for used art books on eBay? Please comment!) It didn't help that I caught a cold from my daughter and somehow hurt my hip, maybe hoisting all those books. All better now. The sale and open house was a success. The invite list was small, just my two classes and a group of former students. I sold sixty books, but still have crates of them and I'm wondering what to do next. I used to have an "Adopt-a-Book" page on my web site, maybe I should revive it. I've given away many, many books in years past, but it helps to sell a few so I can afford to buy some more. Does that make sense? Probably not.

Art on the side burner

Not much art going on last week. A week ago Sunday I picked up my rejected painting from the Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors. Eighty pieces were hung and more than eighty were rejected. The rejects would have made a very good Salon des Refusés. Yesterday I collected my two paintings from the Fairborn Art Association show--I don't think I mentioned that I got a Judge's Merit Award for one of them. I'm finished with entering shows for awhile. This year I got into three out of five and received two awards, not a bad showing, but I don't have enough work and don't want to enter the same pieces too often. Haven't even had time to work on the pouring and I want to get that one off the drafting table.

I finished the last of my spring watercolor classes at Hithergreen Center on Monday and I'm on hiatus for four weeks so I can work on some new book ideas and catch up around the house and woods.

We took a two-day trip to northern Indiana and Chicago to visit family and search for family gravesites. We found what we were looking for--my husband's grandparents' graves and their old farmhouse near Plymouth, Indiana. Two years ago we couldn't find them, but had a few more clues this time.

I'll be concentrating on the release of The New Creative Artist over the next few weeks. Less than two months to go. My pre-publication offer has been well received and the orders are coming in. Yay! It looks like Amazon.com is taking quite a few orders, too. Last week I scored a book-signing at Books & Co. in Kettering on Thursday, August 17. They've hosted signings for all my books and always do it right.

In two weeks I'm having a studio open house and art book sale for my students. I've promised them this for a long time. So I'll be sorting and pricing books--I have at least five crates in the garage and bookcases all over the house filled with art books. I hope it isn't a mortal sin to have too many books.

Making space for art

I love Hanna's excitement over her new art space. Everyone would love to have a state-of-the-art studio, but hardly anyone can have everything they want. Hanna's mother pointed out to her that a corner of her bedroom that had bookcase in it might make a good place for her to set up her arts and crafts studio. It worked! Now she has all her "toys" (read "tools") in one place, doesn't have to put them away, can walk in and create when she feels like it (well, maybe not when her dear husband is sleeping), and she is ecstatic. I know how she feels, having started out on the kitchen table. I had to put everything away at meal times. The next step was a corner of the master bedroom. Nice to be able to leave things out and ready to use. But eventually everything piled up and there was just a narrow path from the door to the bed, lined by matted and framed watercolors. We enclosed our porch to make a sitting room/studio for me, which was fantastic. But I still had to do my framing in the basement and eventually had to set up my computer in a bedroom so I could write my books. In 1983 I moved into my present studio, a renovated recreation room with optimal lighting, an area for painting, tables for framing and a computer and business space. Here's how it looks: my studio. While you're looking at studios, check out other artists' studios. (Not all links here are current.) It doesn't matter how fancy your studio is, just how it makes you feel to work there. It's important to have a place to call your own.