Sneak Peek

I refilled my coffee cup and am looking at the painting in process.  Here's the sneek peek of what's on the easel today.

Painting in Progress, Krystal Booth

Oil on paper, 24x18"

 

So this is what I have to work with so far - it's not a bad start, but yes, there's work to be done.  It's very crude right now, but there are some areas of poetry to work with if I look close enough...straining my eyes and mind, but it's there. haha

 

I think I've stumbled onto an idea.  A big idea.  One of those good ones that I've been dying to get for years now.  I've been circling around it for ten years now when I look back at previous works.  I'm getting closer to what it is I am wanting and needing to paint - at least it feels that way.  That feeling is progress in my book, since I've been grasping at other ideas that don't seem to hold my attention for much longer than a few works.  I am hoping that this is indeed different, and if my intuition is right, it is.

 

Cheers to big ideas - it's time to work, work, and work.  RESEARCH. Do some digging.  Tackle it down before it sweeps up into the universe again - I don't want to wait for it to cycle around again.  So today, I'll be in the studio with music playing and probably a cat on my lap as I try to get it down.

 

Love to all!

Damn it, it Happened Again. Spring Cleaning.

Time for organizing the studio again...good grief it's a mess.

 

There is something delightful about looking at a mess - it's more interesting to look at than just a minimal white surface.  It offers more color, shapes, and shadows.  Too bad this doesn't quite convince me that I shouldn't clean today.

 

It's spring again, and spring cleaning is due.  I found a great cleaning list that's particularly fast and easy on Real Simple:  Daily Quick Cleaning Checklist .  It's helpful and should take someone about a half an hour to complete and is just a daily routine to keep things under control.  It's maybe not as fast as what they claim on some of the tasks...the first time I did it, it took me about two hours.  haha!

 

I find that on this blog I write and talk a lot about cleaning and organizing.  Maybe it's because I blog most often on my days off and the regular household chores that go neglected are ready for my attention.  Another contributing factor could be that I make a lot of messes.  When I'm in the act of creating I just zone out and make a mess, or contribute to an existing mess.  I suddenly wonder who has made the mess, and what forces left scraps of paper about, how did they get on the floor, why is there charcoal ground into the carpet, and why is my cat covered in paint?  Then I move my fist about in the air waving it forcefully at the gods, and refill my coffee cup.

 

I then find myself in the corner facing a computer screen, writing about the cleaning I intend to do and inevitably get sidetracked with interesting news and fun to be had online, all the while ignoring it the mess.

 

Success.

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...

...

This isn't quite working either...you know where I'll be for the hour or so.
 

Work Session #2054 or so...

The smell of afternoon coffee brewing and work is about to get underway.  Today will be about transferring the image onto the canvas.  It's not exactly the most exciting part of the process, but it can be fun as long as I have some good tunes going.  This painting has been a long time coming, but I had to work out the kinks in the composition for quite awhile and then get materials.  I'm excited to finally be putting it on the canvas.  It's of my coworkers and for my coworkers at my part-time job.  The four of us have formed this little fun family and it's on days like today that I really am aware of how awesome they are.  Not to mention that they're fun people to be around.  I'm really looking forward to making this for them.

The canvas is 18x24" - it seems to be my favorite size to work with lately.  It's big enough to get some good details and brushwork, and small enough to still seem manageable by being able to see the entire composition without having to step back too much.

There is also a nature drawing that I'd like to possibly finish tonight.  It's a small work - 8x10" or so - on paper.  It's been waiting on me for a few weeks now...maybe close to a few months!  It's amazing how fast the time can go by, but now that this one hundred works challenge has begun, time will be seized anyway it can.

The coffee is ready now - no more sounds of steam or the stream of coffee filling the carafe.  Time to pour a cup and be off to start today's session with a cat sleeping nearby.

I hope that you enjoy a productive day as well - love to all of you!


 

Our Art Space - A Spring Cleaning!

New leaves are being born from the branches that a month ago were bare, and the day was beautiful in Portland today.  The sun and 80 degree weather seemed to get me going on a spring cleaning kick.  The studio area is now organized and ready to mess up once again with paint, ink, charcoal dust and random pencil shavings that somehow escape.

Our Art Studio.  Ivan insisted on making a cameo pose on the drawing table.



So for now, my brain sought some order and recieved some today (referring to "My Secret Obsession").  I enjoy our art studio being in our home.  It makes it easy to create on a whim and whenever we please.  No one cares what we wear while getting there either which saves us from a lot of judgemental stares and sideways glances if we happen to get lazy about finding a matching pair of comfy shoes.  Last week I wore a monkey slipper with a plaid slip-on.

Secret Obsession

I have a confession to make.  I have a secret obsession with looking at artist studios and how they are organized.  I am fascinated. 

I know this may sound especially lame.  It's not sexual or romantic or exotic.  It's not super weird like an obsession of sleeping with a hairdryer or drinking gasoline.  However, I think an artist studio is highly personal and an intimate way of seeing how different brains work.

Here are some artist studios that caught my eye online (the last one is of Francis Bacon's studio in London):

Some of the studios are tidy with clean surfaces all around.  Others are messy and cluttered.  When I look at these images, I think about the way the artists work and think.  It's easy to spot those who work in a soothing, calm manner and others who prefer a more rapid speed teetering on the brink of chaos. 

Looking at artist studios is going beyond looking at interior design.  Interior design can tell a lot about what people enjoy and what moods they favor, but any space that one creates in tells more about how their mind actually works.  It can tell a great deal about how they organize information and what comforts and inspires them.

It doesn't have to be an artist studio either.  Any space that one creates in can tell a story of how their mind works - my Dad's garage (organized logically, with a bit of clutter on the workbench, but he always knows EXACTLY where to find everything!), my Aunt's Connie's Kitchen (designed with an amazing organizational system with everything having it's own space - it's absolutely amazing and I've never seen any other space better organized anywhere!) and my Great Grandfather's pole building (perhaps could have been seen on hoarders, and yet, the man was able to find everything with amazing efficiency).

What does your creative space say about how you organize information or the way you work?  Is there an enviroment where you have trouble creating?

Going Forward

Today I've been continuing the de-clutterization of the apartment...all seems to be going well, but I am realizing that it's going to take a bigger chunk of time than I expected. 

I also took the opportunity to photograph the painting that's currently in the works.  I like to photograph my art while it is in progress sometimes because it distances me from the work itself.  It seems that I can evaluate the progress and think of different solutions when I see it in a different manner than just standing in front of it.  I like to think that it makes my evaluation a bit more objective.  Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't. 

This painting is quite a departure from what I've done before.  I can see hints of this in earlier works - I took the things I liked from earlier works and am trying to get it all inside one work.  I'll keep you all posted!

Currently working on...

The beginning of a painting on a 36x24"canvas...I will be adding to this today.



Detail of the above work...



Inside the sketchbook

Inside the sketch book

Just a bit of what's in the studio and sketchbook - find myself seduced by line a lot lately...

Justified Clutter vs. Nesting

This is part of the studio area Matthew and I share.  To work is to make clutter.  You will also notice one of small furry studio assistants.  She cares for the paintbrushes mostly.  Our other assistant cares for paper...but he was napping during this photo.


The clutter is caused by several works going on at once...usually a clean studio area is what we aim for, but once we begin getting more involved with works, all matters of clearing the areas are forgotten.  We gather more references, more materials, and putting it all away at the end of a work session would only be giving us more work for the next day.  To have to go about gathering everything all over again would be an obstacle to creating.  I try to minimize that as much as possible - there are more than enough obstacles to creating on any given day whether imagined or concrete for most artists.  We do what we must in order to ensure that we show up.  That freedom to just sit down and begin working is WONDERFUL.


I think back to a few professors in college that were exceptionally organized and tidy.  The work spaces were always meticulously clean.  I admired their expectations in the communal spaces so that we all provided eachother with a clean work environment that limited accidental tragedies of ruin.  One professor took cleanliness and lack of clutter to an extreme.  The apartment she lived in was void of the typical "home" environment.  No comforts of furniture outside of a solid wood dining table and four chairs.  Decor consisted of two houseplants in a window, and a rug by the entry door.  As shocking as it was to my system to see an uninterupted sea of beige carpeting, I found it refreshing.  The minimalism seemed to allow more room for thinking, for speaking, for focusing, for being.  I loved her home.


Matthew and I went through a phase of that before we left for Portland.  We tried to declutter our home as much as possible.  We donated, we threw out, and we prioritized our "stuff".  We have now lived in Oregon for over a year and it was only recently that we adopted some real furniture - two plush chairs that I think our cats love even more than we do. 


Notice that I said Matthew and I went through a "phase" of that in our home...it seems that it's now getting to the point of the great decluttering once again.  We both realize that we do need to do some sorting and organizing.  Some studio clutter is just what happens as a result of work.  It's a given and it is a means to an end.  Yet, it is that time of year for "nesting" type of activities since we are getting ready for a winter's worth of spending more time inside our homes...I'm feeling it coming on strong while I wait for the gesso on the canvas to dry.  You'll know where I'll be if you need me.  Happy nesting to all of you who are feeling the same way!

In the Studio: Saturday, September 17th 2011

This is the current painting - did I reach my Friday goal? - Nope. However, I'm not too far off.  Tomorrow will be a day filled with painting and this will be finished.  I still have quite a bit of work to do, but it will be great to see it done and be onto the next!

Have a great weekend!