Three Red Study

I may never finish that "before" painting or even begin the "after" painting of the new studio, as the "after" is kinda boring.  The couch was the only interesting thing in the room and now it's gone.  Maybe I'll catch up with that once the walls are covered with colorful paintings.  So you may all have to wait several years until the "after"!  

I've begun my watercolor class with Catherine Mix, and this is my first homework assignment.  Three different reds, she wanted us to paint.   It was a pleasure to lay on brush strokes of luscious, crisp reds, a  color I haven't always enjoyed through the years.  

Can you locate the "pentimento" in this image? (Hint: Go back and read my October 6th 2012 posting) 

Board and Batten

Feeling a bit light-headed this afternoon, I let Jim finish the shopping inside our local farm stand-style grocery store, while I waited in the car.  The exterior wall was so pleasurable to look at, I just had to sketch it.  I loved the way the small potted shrubs were arranged in a random order that were for sale, with the board and batten wall having been moistened so many times when the plants were sprayed, that the wood had silvered prematurely.  The green of the infant trees was so welcome on these cold, gray days of winter, I drank them in with my eyes!

2D Studio First Day Part Deux

Hopefully this sketch will be finished soon...  I've already set up my new drafting table and need to get on with the studio progress!  Maybe I'll have to consider doing only a "before" and "after" sketch.  But you know how it goes with an artist's studio...   is there ever an "after"?

2D Studio First Day

The mess before the transformation.  Nice there was something to actually paint beyond the window.   This is a sketch in progress, just as the studio is in progress.  Don't forget, you can click on the photo to enlarge.... in case you're wondering what the heck is written on that cardboard box.   Or you think that may be a nude up there, but you're not sure... 

The New Studio

Down the hall from my clay studio is another room that has had a couple different identities since the building of this house in 1999.  For years it was an entertainment room, with couches, easy chairs and a big screen TV on the wall.  Jim and I rarely saw it during daylight hours, and in fact, the shades were always pulled on the window and the patio door.   Last year I convinced Jim to bring up the TV and create an all-purpose hang-out room of our living area, and turn the entertainment room into his photographic studio.  We  now spend a lot of time in the living room, and find it quite cozy!  However, the TV room-turned-photo-studio has a couch and some professional photo equipment and no one goes in there.  At least its inherent darkness would've been useful for its new intended purpose.

I have not sculpted for more than a year (there I said it), and for the first time in close to thirty years, I seriously feel that chapter may be closed in my life.  All of the equipment still stands and waits for me in my studio, it's tough to see it idle.  The last 50 lb. box of clay still  lays unopened on the floor.  And to be honest, my hands ache with the thought of those years of sanding I did, knuckles unable to bend with pain and stiffness at the end of each day.  Every gentle, little, sculpted face took many hours of hard, hard work to smooth to perfection between the bisque firing and the final firing, and the paint fumes left me dizzy after weeks of meticulous painting.  So sad to let my career go, but it's not the first time I've transitioned to another art form, and the painting, writing and illustrating I've been doing this last year or so have been like coming home again, as that's where I started so long ago.  

And just as I was struggling these last weeks with decisions regarding my studio, my sweet husband confesses his decision to avoid studio photography altogether.  His suggestion?  That I convert that old TV room space into a studio for my writing and painting.  Yeah, I know... PINCH ME!!  

It's amazing how beautiful the view of the garden and the bay is out the window when you fling the shades open!  I've ordered a drafting table that will arrive within a week or so.  The couch will have to go before that happens, but I've already starting sketching a series of transition pictures, the first I'll scan and post in the next couple days.  

We'll see what this new chapter in life brings!  Thank you all for helping me move through this change, I've gone from denial, to acceptance to celebration....   and I'm sure you all knew what was going on before I did.