Catching An Art Moment!

First I want to say thank you for being patient with me yesterday. Sometimes I just can't access my photographs to post here!

I thought I would share a few things I have been working on lately. These are small, but some of what I do as "between work"!

This is a piece I did to see how the Ampersand board for watercolors (Aquabord) would work. I wet the surface of this product and then added the color. In this case, I used watered down acrylics. I love to let colors blend together as they wish, so this was the way I chose to begin with this one. The next thing I did was dry brush some pearl acrylic over the surface. As you probably know these reflective acrylics do not photograph well. Lastly, I used acrylic which was in my little squeezy bottles to add the small gestural mark. This is a 5" x 7" board.

The other little thing I have been working on is another weaving. This is, again, rice paper which I have slapped on some left over acrylic paint. This time, though, I have cut the strips with a mat knife rather than tearing them. I left one edge uncut on each piece to see if weaving it would be easier. As you can tell, I am still working on this one. I have no idea what I will do with it, but I can go in and weave a few inches when I have a moment, though. I will let you know more about how I proceed with this one!

Do you have things like this you do if you can catch a quick art moment? Tell me about it.

Have a Lovely Creative Day!

Movable Studio and Honors!

Happy Monday Everyone! Friday's post inspired some of you out there. I have noted this morning two other bloggers have spoken about it. You might like to visit their blogs. Diane writes Umbrella Watercolors and has created a pieced based on some work she did with her mother! Please visit her and see what she has done. And Paula writes Second Studio from New Mexico and has featured me on her blog today. She said she is going to try the woven paintings. Thank you both for this lovely honor. I am glad you felt inspired by Friday's post. And guess what? This is not what I have to share with you this week! We will get to that soon, but not today. Stay tuned, though. There are a few more things to do and that will be ready to share with you!

Last week, I promised I would let you have a look/see at my very cramped studio. Above you see my little music area. Now, though for a little background. For those of you who are not aware of it, we move a lot so my studio has to be very mobile. The last move we made was from Europe so our possessions arrived in 3 shipments and at the time, my daughter was also living with us. So everyone grabbed the spaces they wanted while I was unpacking things like the kitchen, and this little bedroom was left for me. I am such a good mama! :) I was so wanting to paint, I just unpacked my things and set up a simple studio. No painting...I didn't want to take the time to strip that ugly wallpaper...no anything except plopping things down. One day, I will claim another space, so I can redo this room, but for now it is what I have.

From the door, this is what the room looks like...yes, it is also my library! :) That may change sooner, rather than later. Do you see the drying line? I mainly dry my brushes here, but lately I have been working with rice paper and also wipe off brushes on tissue (which can make for some really interesting painted papers for collage) and find drying those on that line works great.


This area sits to my right when I am at my work table and just behind me when I am at my easel. I know it looks very messy, but I know just where everything is located...and no one else can find a thing (you know I love that).

This tambour sits to the right of my easel and holds a lot of things for me. The nice thing about a lot of the items I use is they can be easily broken down and moved where I need to go next.

And this is my work table...it is actually an old drafting board...there is a parallel bar at the top...which sits on another table. Can you see my paper storage on the table under the board?

This is not an ideal studio, but it works for me for now. If you could see what I have to do when we live in locations where we do not purchase a house you would probably be shocked! The good news about this spot is it is just across the hall from both a bathroom and a laundry room, so I have good access to sinks! I don't have to hang plastic from the walls here and I have a room!

Here are today's questions. Do you have a separate room for your studio? Do you have special needs for your studio? Do you have any ideas which will be helpful when you have to relocate a studio with regularly?

Do not forget to keep checking here, because once everything is ready, you will be the first to know The Secret.

Sharing the Color

Today I thought I would share some of my favorite color application tools [with the exception of wall color application :) ]. I think most of us have our favorites.

In this photo you can see a variety of brushes. I really like the two sash brushes and actually have another between the size of these two. I mainly like flat brushes and use a couple of sizes of those. Is this a hold over from my other career? No, interior designers don't get into actual application they just pull together the fruits of other's labors for the most part. I also love my spatulas - the two on the right are actually for cake decorating and the one non-palette knife is used for plaster. Of course, tape and water bottles (filled from a gallon of distilled water) are oh so helpful. I know I use acrylics and a palette should be in this photograph, but I really prefer one of the butcher pans watercolor artist use. I have those in 2 sizes and use this one a great deal. Maybe I like it because it helps keep me from making a bigger mess! I have quite a few other brushes and tools and use my hands and chopsticks a lot, too.

This is a funny little thing, but I find I use it a lot. It is mainly used for seperating small items (like beads), but I find it works well for keeping paint while I am working on particular paintings. It keeps the acrylic paint moist for a couple of days, and if I am not going to be working for a bit of time I wet a folded paper towel and lay it over the top to hold it for a week or more (you can also spritz that with your trusty spray bottle. It is just something I have found to work. You can purchase these in various sizes and with different well sizes. You could have several you keep going if you work on lots of paintings at one time. Somewhere I saw an artist using this and apologize for not remembering where. It also cleans up quite easily.

Now these are just fun little toys for me. I can imagine they would be great for people who work with detailed small paintings. As you can see they are small plastic bottles (rather soft plastic). There are stainless steel tips of various opening sizes which fit over the top you can see on the one filled with red paint. That tip slips out of the little bottle for filling. They can be a little fiddly and I have just gotten them, so can't address the clean up. What I can address is how much fun they are to play with! Very freeing...

So another day I will share what my tiny bedroom studio looks like. I have written the Chelsea College of Art in London asking about that easel I had asked about here. I am just waiting to hear back from them...fingers crossed. I will let you know what they say.

Todays questions??? What are your favorite studio tools? Do you use them in a different way than how they were designed to be used? I can't wait to hear from you.