My new Studio

 
In the front of the garage where we now live is a smaller room which Caleb and I have converted into our work space the 'Site'. As with the back room we layered cardboard over the cold, hard concrete floor and then replaced the carpet in an effort to make the place a bit more comfortable and not so cold on the feet. During the first couple of weeks after we arrived in Christchurch we spent a bit of time setting up our little home and carried a lot of pallet wood, mattress, cardboard, etc through the streets back to the flat ( called the 'Habitat' ) on our heads or on our bikes as feet or peddle are our only means of transport here (Buses are not for poor students except in extreme necessity).

   Caleb did a bit of furniture making also -- or furniture alterations-- including extending a small desk for me for more table space and leg room, and making a tabouret for me out of an old desk on wheels. This will be very handy for painting on, and I just need to locate a sheet of glass for the top as a pallet. I still need to find or create an easel of some kind. Maybe something like the one demonstrated in this video.


  I am all set up to start plein air painting and have just primed fifteen small boards on which to paint en plein air as well as some larger boards for studio painting. I am using traditional oil primer for the first time and using rabbit skin glue for the first time to seal the boards before applying primer. Rabbit skin glue is a traditional glue that has been used for sealing canvas or wood panels for hundreds of years. It comes in dry form in tiny pieces which is soaked 3 to 10 in water and then you melt it in a double boiler and paint on all surfaces of the board to seal it. In my research some sources recommended applying it cold as a gel, but others said that it worked better and soaked into the wood applied hot. I applied it hot, and warm as it cooled down. If any of my readers know anything about it I would love to hear your comments as to the correct way.

  I'm planning to do a lot of plein air work, explore the city and get out and about. It's becoming more of an arts city since the earthquakes and all of the damage from them. I don't know why people still live here it is so unstable the ground could skake and any time.  Since I've been here I have already experienced two skakes, one was big enough to have the university evacuated. So why am I living here for that matter? well for love and study I guess.

Studio Visit

   So last week I gave my studio a good clean out - and decided I should do it more often from the way it looked afterwards! The little art group came to visit last Friday morning as promised. There were five of them so they all fit into my little studio. It went very well and I enjoyed showing them around and answering their many questions. They seemed to like my work and were very encouraging and after they left I felt allot more like a 'real artist!' It sort of made me feel as if I am just beginning to be recognized as an artist in the community, and that's nice!

   Here is a little video tour of my studio which I made last year. It dose look a bit different now as I have moved one table but it's what it basically looks like now.

Big horse painting project

I have had this big canvass hanging about for a long time and am finally having a go at making something out of it. There's a hundred other things I ought to be working on, like a few pictures I have promised people and something to put in the shop. They will be done. Just...later...

What I do when I don't know what I'm going to paint

All that I accomplished yesterday in an afternoon.

Many more hours to go.

Why I've been mising, and my new Studio!

Now I apologize for not posting much this month. I was away at a youth camp over Easter, and then we went out on the boat a couple days. 

And went to stay with friends a couple days. And yesterday I went riding on 90 mile beach with my brother. Something I've always wanted to do. We saw wild horses too, the forest there is riddled with them!

So really I've done nothing arty except transform the sleep-out into my art studio.

Which did look like this: 

 And now looks like this:

The view from my work seat.

Mum's old typewriter. 

New Studio

   I now have an art studio! The sleep-out which is supposed to be a guest room but since we rarely have guests and the room is a tip my parents have decided that I will make the most use of it. 

It will be fun cleaning it out and arranging things nice and comfy! This is the state it is in at the moment:

When it's all lovely and tidy and clean I will post you some more photos! =)

 

From a Corner of My World

Quite by accident everything in this photo describes me and my life. As you can see I have to compromise with space when I come to do larger paintings! This is a painting I'm doing on commission though it is the best kind of commission because I could paint almost any horse I wanted! I used as reference a sketch of Sam Savitt's from this book:

It was only a small sketch with not much detail. I changed the horses head around and tried to figure out the colours. Colouring is hard for me, especially with oils, pastel colours are so much easier to work with because you don't mix them just blend them on the painting. Maybe I should do a 70 oil sketch challenge next!!