Creative Connections: Busy

Creative Connections: Busy

Busy

The creative juices are flowing! The adjustments have been completed on “Listening”, “Downstream” is getting close and the first few tissue paper forms have been torn for “The Eye of the Needle”. There are three other panels prepped and in the process of acquiring the watercolour pencil lines that define the shape of things to come. Another canvas waits in the wings for its turn to fill the spotlight and the idea books are growing. I have several sketchbooks containing inspirations for “The Many Faces of Eve”. I have begun a third for this theme. My preliminary sketches include a photo for the background which could come from any place I may have visited or some local scenery, one or more photos from family albums of people going about their daily chores or play, a rough poem, some thumbnails organizing value shapes for the format and various notes. Two or more pages in the book are devoted to one image. Each book contains about twenty ideas. There are other series as well. “Rocks and Rivers”, “Woods and Water”, “Pilgrims” and “Europe”. All work on the same principles. I like having a variety of choices around me, works at various levels of completion. I get into trouble when I finish everything I have started at the same time. I have also noticed that if a painting has waited too long for attention it tends to die. Like my plants…. maybe I should water them today.

Painting Again

The lifeblood is flowing again. It feels so good to be back with a paint brush in my hand. And not the house variety. Oh we are still in the process with the house painting, our last job is the kitchen. That will be done tomorrow. In the morning meantime, my favorite music channel is playing sweet inspiration as I make improvements to the paintings I thought I had finished in October and as I plan value designs for the next triplet. I love my new space. I had not thought it possible to move everything in and still have space to work. Every inch of storage is being used. Some adjustments had to be made to the first arrangement. My paint, for instance, found the first location too warm so it settled in new surroundings away from the radiant heater. I am so thankful for my heater with its efficient heat waves and no air currents. My little bits of tissue paper stay in place on the shelves and on the table. That is if I do not walk past too quickly…. or sneeze. Next week I will invite my students to join me anew in our flexible, open atelier. Perhaps the car seats will be back in the van by then. In any case, tomorrow I will be drawing in the new images, planning another and fiddling with adjustments. Ahhh…heaven.

Progress?

We have an empty apartment downstairs that we have been trying to rent for a month. Today I was very thankful that there had been no customers because my priority of moving my studio became urgent and it provided the space I needed to dump all the boxes and equipment as we arranged the drafting desk and paper storage unit against the walls of the garage. I have begun to call it my studio. And so it is. It just does not look like one at the moment…. The paintings are moved and in place. There is one canvas that does not fit. It will once I adjust the furniture a bit. The tables are piled high and there is so much more to move in. It is at this point when I ask myself if I am really making progress. They say it is darkest before the dawn. I never understood that. I have watched many sunrises and it is light long before dawn. At least here, in my part of the world. It is true that the closer one is to the equator the less twilight there is. I love twilight. It is so full of promise. At the beginning of the day the promise is life filled with beauty and possibility. At the end it promises rest and renewal. We live in an awesome world filled with moments of awestruckness. The sunrises and sunsets are some. The smile of a grandchild is another. Selective recycling revealing empty spaces where there had been none before…. yes. Let’s move a few other things out that belong elsewhere. Then there will be room and room to spare.

Construction

For Larger Work

For Smaller Work

There is nothing more satisfying than the concretization of an idea. Especially if it works. I had no storage in my garage for my canvases and my completed paintings so I envisioned a unit something similar to the one in my former studio. To begin with I thought perhaps it does not need to be as large, after all two artists were using it. As I laid the two by fours on the floor I realized that the four foot lengths did not feel right. Listening to the Spirit within I suggested six feet. Nope… O.K. Eight feet. That means I would buy more lumber. Taking a guesstimate I came home with five two by fours and five one by twos. With the scrap I already had I cut the appropriate lengths for the supports above the cooler/cupboard and made the main storage area six feet high. I was very glad I had bought some two inch screws too. The four and three inch size were definitely overkill when working with the half inch of the one by twos. Yes. A one by two is really a half by one and a half. A two by four is really one and a half by three and a half. It did not used to be that way. Among the one by twos there was a very special example of how important it is to pick out one’s own lumber…. It actually twisted in five different directions. I used it too where I did not need to be particularly accurate (it is screwed into the ceiling to support the crossbeams). I am not a gifted carpenter but I am very thankful for the skills I do possess. They allow me the freedom to do as I please without the expense of hiring someone with more knowledge. In any case, my storage unit is standing and strong awaiting its precious cargo. One more step in the process done. Let’s celebrate!

Home Stretch

Look at all the space! And the light! Now that I have full spectrum bulbs in my ceiling the garage is beginning to feel more like a studio. I love the openness. My cubbyholes for still-life settings are gone but not abandoned. I replaced them with a portable unit which can be set up anytime and in any direction (better light control). As you can see there is still a lot of decluttering…. selective recycling to do and the storage units have not been built yet but there is room. The recycling/garbage people must be wondering what on earth hit this place. We put out five or six bags each every week. It feels a whole lot lighter. Not to mention all the other boxes that we have recently moved to my daughter’s new place. The attic is much less encumbered. Once the new construction is complete we can begin in earnest to move my old studio into my new studio. Then the real challenge presents itself: where will it all go? Ah yes, I forgot! Look at all the space!