Out with the Old, In with the New

I decided to start the new year with a major clean-up of my studio. Major. I promised myself not just to tidy up my painting table but also to deal with the piles of papers everywhere, the boxes of frames, the collections, the whatever (as I've lost track of what everything is).

I have been working on it the past week and I have made progress. I cleared everything off my bookshelf and rearranged things. I've gone through my nature collections and picked out my favourite things for display.

I attached some of my heart rocks to a frame. I hot-glued them right on to the glass. I love how it looks and we'll see if the rocks manage to stay attached.

I've sorted through my stacks of paintings. I finally framed the portrait I did of Meeko months ago. I've framed other things too--my own work and work I've purchased from other artists.

I've moved things from my painting table so that I can have more space. Last night, I was feeling pretty discouraged. I'm tired. Tired of cleaning and just plain old tired. There is a still a lot to go through and I was feeling like giving up. I'd rather be painting but I will stick with this. I figure a few more days and my studio will be in better shape than it has been in years and I'll benefit from it in the months ahead.

Here's hoping that your new year has started in a positive way.

Welcome to my Studio

I have spent the past week cleaning my studio. I still have a few hours of work to do but there are parts I can show you now that you've never seen before.

My studio is in the loft of our house. When we had our house built thirteen years ago, it was important to me that there be a space dedicated to my painting. In other houses and apartments I've lived in, I created painting spaces in nooks and crannies but this time I wanted a defined studio space. At the time we moved in though, Chloé was a newborn and Emma was four. I underestimated the time and energy that motherhood would require. Although I ventured upstairs to paint from time to time, there were long periods when my art light gathered cobwebs and my confidence as an artist waned from neglect. I definitely felt guilty that this beautiful space in our house was not being used properly but I knew that the day would come when it would.

The past two years as I've returned to painting on a full-time basis, I was so intent on devoting my energy to creating that I let the clutter sit and multiply around me. I am most definitely a perfectionist. I prefer order but, somehow, I am able to ignore clutter when I want to do other things. Housework doesn't rank very high of my list of loves. But does it ever feel good to be restoring order to my studio space now!

This is a sitting space in the corner of my studio. I dreamt of sneaking up here at night and reading novels when the girls were tucked in. But that rarely happened.  Meeko tested out the sofa this morning. Two weeks ago, you could barely see the sofa let alone sit on it. There were boxes of frames and mats in front of it and it was covered with piles of artwork and paper.

This is my storage cupboard. I made sure that it was built big enough to hold my 22" x 30" sheets of watercolour paper. I constructed the built-in shelves myself.  The watercolour sheets are stored flat just underneath the triangular space at the top. I have enough sheets and pads of paper to last me a long while but still have trouble entering an art store and not buying some sort of new paper to try.

This is my collection of art books as well as art and home decorating magazines. I've put a lot of magazines in the recycling bin in the past week and don't subscribe to as many anymore. I find it hard to keep up with them. I still am holding on to my Mary Engelbreit magazines, though, as they are not published anymore. I used to love the artist profiles they did.

I'll show you some other perspectives of the space in the days ahead. I have a bit more cleaning and then I have a commissioned painting to start on. It is so cold this week! I saw snowflakes in the air when I was walking Meeko today. A cozy, warm studio space seems like the perfect place to be.

How Not to Paint

Where did the week go? I am very tired, so know that I was very busy yet I certainly didn't get a lot of painting done.

I started a painting of crocuses a few days ago. I chose hot-pressed paper, although I usually use cold-pressed to paint on and either it didn't agree with me or I didn't agree with it. I seemed to be fighting with it. Finally I walked away from my work in progress in frustration. I often feel frustrated while I am in the middle of a painting. Every painting contains myriad up and down moments as the paint, water, paper and I conspire to create an image. I'm used to that, but it's very rare for me to give up on a painting.

Because my week contained more non-painting moments than painting ones, I thought it would be useful (maybe you're too driven? too prolific?) to put together this list.

Kathleen's Handy Tips:  How Not To Paint

• Take the dog for a walk. 
• Make beautiful colour swatches of all of the paints in your paint box.

• Spend days on the Handprint site (an amazing resource!) and stay so long that you become artistically paralysed. 
• Revise your palette based on all of the information that you learned during your days spent on the Handprint site. 
• Revise it again. 
• Make new colour swatches based on your new palette. 

• Start a blog. 
• Reorganize your watercolour paper in your studio. 
• Garden.
• Open an Etsy shop. 
• Have another cup of coffee or maybe a cup of tea. 
• Decide that your many years of painting experience are not enough and reread all of your art instruction books, watch how-to paint videos on YouTube and visit other artists’ websites. 

• Create a Facebook page. 
• Take photos of potential painting subjects. 
• Take some more. 
• Go to the art supply store to find inspiration in new art materials. 

• Decide that you should devote your energy and time to the art of housework. 
• Open a Twitter account. 
• Redecorate a room, refinish a piece of furniture or build something. 
• Check your email, blog, Etsy shop, Facebook page and Twitter feed. 
• Take the dog for another walk. 
• Write a blog post about not painting.

I will confess to being diverted by all of the above activities at various times in the past couple of years. Well, except for one. You can try and figure it out. :)