A Rainy Day is a Studio Day

It rained all night and it is supposed to rain all day. It's good for the garden. I love the scent and find the sound comforting. It also means I have no excuse not to spend the day in my studio. I started cleaning it yesterday and need to continue my work. I am so tempted just to clear a spot in the middle of the mess and start a new painting but I know a cleaner, safer (yes, it got that bad) workspace would be the best thing.

I took these photos from the shelter of the back door this morning. I love how you can see the rain in the photos! Do you see the diagonal streaks?

The last painting I did was a commission. The customer requested two flowers of significance to her family but left the approach and composition entirely up to me. I couldn't ask for a more pleasant experience. Still, I am looking forward to doing a painting of my own choice. Plus, I have several watercolors from past months that are almost finished and are still waiting for final touches. I also have frames for some of my original watercolours that I need to assemble. I have new prints to create. Oh boy. So much to do. But first a clean studio.

I opened the screen door for Meeko to go out this morning and he immediately sat down. For the moment, he'd rather look at the rain than be in it. Maybe he'll join me in my studio later for moral support.

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain." 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

❤  ❤  ❤  ❤  ❤

A Clean Studio and Backyard Miracles

I took this photo this past week in my studio. I'm pretty happy with how it's looking these days. My studio cleanup has made a big change. Because you are my friends, I will admit that there are a few things not appearing in the photo that still need to be dealt with. There are quite a few boxes not within the camera's range--maybe even nudged out of its range with my foot when I took the photo. My studio is not in a state of perfection yet (as if) but this part is what I see when I come up the stairs and it is making me happy. There has also been more light this past week. I love that.

I have a skylight in my studio which gets northern light. It is lovely, even light--the perfect light for painting. In the winter though, my skylight is sometimes covered completely with snow and, on those days, there is virtually no natural light. The skylight is my only window.  My art lamp is good. I've had it for decades and it combines fluorescent and incandescent bulbs to approximate natural light. But nothing can compare with good daylight. I am grateful for the days when I get that.

I have been painting in past weeks. If you follow my Instagram feed, Facebook page or Twitter account, you may have already seen these paintings. I took these photos one evening, hence the dramatic lighting. :)

These wintry days, I often paint using photos as reference. This is a sweet little Eastern cottontail rabbit who visited our front yard last June. I have loved rabbits all my life. I have a postcard of Albrecht Dürer's Young Hare that I have kept for years. This is my first painting of a rabbit. I am so proud of how this little fellow turned out. I am going to paint more. I know that many people detest the rabbits that visit their gardens and ravage their plants. To date, the rabbits who have visited here have only looked cute and pruned my plants lightly (and driven Meeko slightly crazy). All is well...for now.

I did this daffodil painting from a photo I took in my back garden. It was in either Chloé or Emma's garden patch. The photo didn't show the tulip in the background or daffodil buds at the side. I added those to help the composition feel more balanced. I know that not everyone agrees with using photos as references. I really don't see the problem as long as you use your own photos (definitely not okay to copy others' photos without permission) and also not be a slave to them. I like to use my photos as a starting point and then to put them aside and make sure that the painting makes sense on its own.

This is another painting that I worked on most recently. I slept very badly for a few nights this past week. About four hours each night. Because of the very tired state I was in, I didn't want to do final details on a painting I loved or to try to start a painting that might be complicated. I have a stack of paintings in one drawer--paintings that were either intended as studies or were meant to be more but didn't quite work out that way. I figured I would spend time on one of them. If it worked, great. If it didn't, back in the drawer. This is the 'after' of the one I decided to work on. I should have taken a 'before' photo. I am so happy with how this painting has turned out. This was a sweet, unexpected visitor in our yard about two years ago. I had to look it up at the time. It looked like something between a large sparrow and a fluffy bunny. A google search showed me that it was a 'snow bunting'. The study in my drawer seemed awkward and had many hard edges. I scrubbed the hard edges out and adjusted the parts that had bothered me (around the beak and eyes). I really like how it has turned out.


A lesson. Perhaps a life lesson. Don't give up on your paintings. I have learned this over and over again. Maybe every now and then there is one that definitely deserves to end up in the recycling basket but for most, put them in a drawer. On another day in perhaps another year, there will be hope. Oh yes, and be open to the appearance of miracles in your backyard like snow buntings. :)

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.

More Corners of my Studio

More views of my studio. First: my work table which is pretty darn neat at the moment. There will always be a bit of clutter. I think that is part of the creative process--at least, mine.  That sweet little pumpkin has been waiting very patiently for its portrait. (I'm getting to it.) What else do we see there? Several paint palettes. Some tea boxes I've converted to hold my Micron pens and cutting tools. Some reference photos for a painting I'm about to start. Several jars filled with pencils and paint brushes. Behind my chair, you can see the lovely letterpress poster 'Live what you love' that I bought from Heartfish Press when I was in the initial stages of getting back to painting (well before I started my blog).

The bulletin board is really placed just for my eyes as I'm working, so it was a bit of a challenge to take a photo head-on. The single most important item for me on that board is the Van Gogh quote:  "If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint', then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." I often think about how sad it was that a man full of inspired words of encouragement for others was such a tortured soul himself. That quote has helped me over and over again. A more elegant version of  'Just do it'. The young woman on the bridge at Giverny is me on my honeymoon. And the beautiful wooden heart that says 'Bonheur' was bought in Paris years ago.  The tiny acrylic landscapes on canvas (sitting on the top edge) were done by me and Chloé a couple of years ago.

I had to replace a light bulb in the ceiling light today, so took advantage of being on a stepladder to take a spider's eye view of my table.

I don't have side windows but have a nice skylight that provides decent northern light in the early part of the day. I still tend to use my art light (which has two bulbs that mimic daylight) most of the time. I sometimes miss having a window on the side walls but I would probably spend too much time gazing out of it.

There is just one more view to show you of my studio. That's the front view from my table. I just have a bit more clean up to do there. Did you wonder if maybe I was just shifting boxes from place to place, taking photos and pretending that I had cleaned things up? Hah! Don't think I didn't think about it. No, I'm really happy that things are more organized now.  I'll take that front view photo in the next few days.

Someone else is happy at the current state of my studio. Meeko now has a lovely clear sofa to read his copy of Uppercase magazine on. ;)

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.

Some Recent Paintings

I finally had a little time in my studio this week.  Emma is back in school. Chloé returns this Thursday. I can't quite believe how fast the summer went although I'll be happy to have more time each day to devote to painting.

When I paint, I don't always know if I'm finished a particular subject. I'll get to a certain point and then set the painting aside. There are usually one or two (or more) piles of recent paintings off to the side of my work table. It's actually a useful method as I come back to the paintings later with fresh eyes.

This week, I went through some paintings from the past few weeks and months and added some finishing touches and details.  Here are some of the paintings I worked on.  Are they really finished now? Perhaps. :)

The next step will be to try and convert some of them into prints for my Etsy shop.

Painting Time

There has been so much going on lately that it's been hard to find painting time. The solution the past few mornings has been to make a cup of coffee and go up to my studio first thing while still in my pajamas.  It has been working quite well as Jocelyn is long gone to work by that time and Emma and Chloé sleep in during the summer. The past few mornings I have left Meeko sleeping in his crate downstairs. But today, he stirred as I walked by his crate and I got brave and brought him up to the loft to sit with me. He was a little fidgety at first until I put my foot down right beside him (note his paw in turn touching my foot).  He was very good and slept for about an hour and a half there. I couldn't have done this before without him gnawing on the furniture legs or consuming my watercolour paper.

Emma made the comment recently that she thinks Meeko and I are co-dependent. I think she might be right. I am already missing him, just thinking about leaving him with the dog-sitter while we are away.

I'm glad that I have been getting some painting time the past few mornings as I am working on a commissioned painting that will be hand-delivered (not by me) to France later this month.  Here is a little peek at it in progress.  It is about halfway done at this point:  lots of detail, colour and contrast still to be added but the basic structure is there and I'm starting to 'feel' the place.  It was a surprise initially when I received the photos as I didn't expect to see the palm trees. It has been interesting to paint a more tropical garden than I would normally.

When out of my studio, I am getting us ready for our family trip to New York and Chloé for her first overnight summer camp (which happens almost immediately upon our return).  We also have to leave the house relatively neat as my brother and his family will be using our place as a stopover on their drive out to PEI. I said that it is a family trip to New York, but it is more than that.  I am going to meet my sweet friend Lucile for the first time. She will be visiting New York from Paris with her two children. Cannot wait!

Thanks to everyone for the lovely birthday wishes. I didn't have a chance to leave individual replies the way I normally do but I appreciated each and every comment.  I had a great day. Emma made my cake and it was delicious!  She used Nigella Lawson's Buttermilk Birthday Cake recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess (an excellent, very tasty cake that we have made many times here).  I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging in the next week. I'll see and so will you! :)

Happy 4th of July to everyone in the U.S.!

Where My Paintings Live

A little peek into part of my studio. This is the chest of drawers that I use to store my paintings and art materials that aren't in use.  The beautiful nest painting is by my friend, Canadian artist Jody Edwards.  

Because most of my paintings are very small, it is easy for me to store them in a piece of furniture like this. I have a few larger paintings that I store in portfolio cases. The bottom drawer contains paintings done by Emma and Chloé.

Here's a little look at some of my paintings. I've spread them out for the photo. I usually have them stacked in piles according to their size.

My studio is in a loft on the top floor of our house. Because it is a loft, the ceiling is sloped.  That means I can't put any tall furniture against the walls.  I was really happy to find this chest of drawers that was exactly the right height. I painted both the walls and ceiling a peachy rose colour several years ago. I still like the colour but I think I would prefer a light periwinkle blue (my favourite colour) if I was to do it again.

I'll show you more of my studio soon. I still have a lot of things to organize that are taking up room on part of the floor.

I have been going through a number of my paintings today (none of which are in the photos above) trying to decide which ones I would be willing to sell. So some of my paintings may have new homes soon.  I'll share the details here once I'm organized.

Seashells By The Seashore

I've been painting a little the past few days.  I still haven't finished my studio cleanup completely, so I can't show you my whole room yet, but my worktable is not looking too bad.

I decided to paint a trio of seashells.  Everything seems to have associations for me. I wonder if that is a sign of being older. Everything exists in my brain in layers.  I can't look at seashells without thinking of the line 'She sells seashells by the seashore':  a tongue twister from my childhood. I also think of my grandmother Viola who used to vacation in South Carolina every year and bring back shells. Mostly she collected tiny shells that she would open into a butterfly shape and glue onto all sorts of things.

I sometimes wish that I lived closer to the ocean. I love combing beaches for shells and sea glass. Plus, I always feel a sense of peacefulness beside large bodies of water. I've always wondered if that is because so much of our body is made of water.

Next week, I hope to finish my studio cleanup. I also need to get back to making a few new prints for my Etsy store. And paint (that's the part I like most).

Big and Small

I have been cleaning my studio the past two days. It is a big, overwhelming job but not without interest. I am finding all sorts of things I had forgotten about.

I started painting when I was 18 years old.  I didn't study Fine Art in university but English Literature.  I started taking a neighbourhood painting course to serve as a creative counterpoint to my studies.  I was never told that I had an ability in art when I was in elementary school, to the point that I didn't take any art courses when I was in high school. I was more often told that I was a good writer. So I didn't expect to love painting as much as I did.  Even after I graduated from university and started working in the corporate communications field, I continued painting in the evenings and taking art courses. I even thought of getting a second degree in Art History but realized that the actual doing of it was what I loved the most.  It wasn't until I was in my thirties and in the middle of a burnout related to my corporate job that I realized that painting was what I wanted to do--all of the time.

What I am finding as I clean my studio is work from years ago. It's quite mindblowing. Some of it feels like it was done by another person and I guess in a way it was.  I have a ton of stuff but picked out a few that I thought you might enjoy seeing.

These three really surprised me as I don't have any clear memory of painting them. Isn't that strange? I am thinking that they were perhaps done during one of the evening courses I took at a lovely little independent art school that existed on Queen Street in Toronto in the 1980s. It was called Arts' Sake.  These are all on full-sized sheets of very ordinary newsprint paper.

I painted primarily in oil when I was in my twenties. The studies above would have been done during that period, so I was experimenting but hadn't made the official switch to watercolour.  That came in my thirties. At the beginning, I used to paint miniatures almost exclusively. I love things that are small and I love detail. Here are some that I still have from 1991 and 1992. They include scenes from my garden, Quebec, Ontario and travels in England, Australia and New Zealand. They measure 3½ x 2½ inches and smaller. (Some I like; some I don't.) I sold many of the paintings I did in this period.

The iris studies at the very top of this post were done in this same period too, although they are bigger.

This mosaic was the result of a class I took about six years ago at the Visual Arts Centre in Montreal. I have taken several courses there.  We were asked by the teacher to bring in a watercolour that we weren't happy with, without being told why. I brought in a still life I had done of a tea pot, butternut squash and orange. When we arrived, we were told to cut the painting into squares (eek!), rearrange them and then add painted detail.  I added three tea bags, flowers and lines and the sentence 'I will make time for tea and art and tranquillity'.  It ended up being a piece that I like to this day.

This final piece is one of the very few 'full sheet' 22 x 30 inch watercolours that I have done.  Some artists work on full sheets all of the time.  I much prefer smaller formats.  This was also done during the course I took six years ago. If my memory serves me right, tears were involved. :)

My cleanup is still not finished. I'll post photos when I have everything organized. I'm already breathing easier as I walk up the loft stairs.

Living With Danger

We had snow overnight but we are now in the middle of freezing rain--a good reason to stay inside even if it wasn't Friday the 13th.  The task I've assigned myself this morning is to clear the stairway to my loft studio.  My 'Entrée des artistes' is a little bit 'dangereuse'.

It has a collection of mailing paraphernalia, frames, printing materials and art supplies.  Let's see. What else can we see in my photo?  A beautiful teatowel from Bookhou that was far too pretty to put anywhere other than on a wall. (I will have to show you my lovely Bookhou collection some day.)  Dogs toys on their way to my sewing machine in the loft to be repaired. And, oh yes, a Magic 8 Ball because you just never know when you might need to ask a question.

O, wondrous Magic 8 Ball, should I clear the stairway to my loft today?

Oh no, this can't be good. The Magic 8 Ball seems to be broken.  I can't even see its answer. On Friday the 13th.  I might need to go back to bed.