A Room of One's Own

Yesterday on social media I posted the video of my long-awaited studio completion. If you weren't tuned in to that, I'm including it below. Today I'm also sharing a few more photos and some details because I'm really excited to finally have a permanent home to create my work.

Yes, the garage-to-studio is complete! Hurrah! 😄 I feel as if I have been moving for nearly two years, because, well, I have. So just the very thought of not having to shuffle my supplies and equipment from one place to the other is a most delicious concept to me.

It doesn't have the cottage charm of my former studio,  but it's open and airy and has North light and storage, so I feel like I'm in luxury any way. Here are the bins we had built:

We built them "up" to keep the work off of the floor, even making use of the space over the water heater. 

I'm using the same hanging system for hanging art as I did in the last studio, using picture rail and a hook and rod system from Walker Display. But my favorite feature is the shelving that runs along the perimeter of the space. 

This came about because I had a strange cinder block bump-out that ran along the walls of the garage, and the carpenter suggested capping this off with some shelving where I could perch works-in-progress, wet paintings, or other unframed art. He also ran this same shelving over the doors and windows I had framed in, in place of the the old garage doors. 

This space is just slightly east of due north studio lighting. But as you can see, when the sun goes down I still need supplemental lighting. For that I have installed Daylight LED tube lights and tracks. At some point I may install a couple of additional short tracks over my framing and auxiliary painting area, but I have enough to get me up and running. 

In keeping with tradition, I maintain my usual impeccable timing, and have completed the studio just in time to leave for two weeks on a plein air painting trip to Maine for an artist's residency. So, as excited as I am for my new space, it will have to wait to get junked up until I return! 😉  Meanwhile, God and internet willing, I hope to blog from the road during my travels. 

Super cheap wet panel holder

This week as I am plodding through the daunting task of packing up my studio, I have storage on my mind (as in, where the heck am I going to put all of this stuff?!) Granted, a number of these boxes are my office supplies and files, but let's face it; artists have a lot of stuff.

And so we painters are always trying to come up with nifty and cheap storage ideas that will protect our paintings when they are wet and keep them organized when they are dry. With that introduction, meet my cd storage racks turned painting panel holders:

Wet Panel Storage

This is about as low tech as you can get. Two CD holders are tied together with twist-ties on either side.

Wet panel storage

These are also great to have in the car for plein air paitning trips. I put the whole setup inside of a box lid sized to hold them for added stability and reduced mess. It will hold painting panels up to 12" and keep them neatly separated from each other so that they don't touch.

Granted, CD holders are becoming a little harder to find as we move further into the digital age, but they are still around. If push comes to shove, a letter sorter from an office supply store will do.

art storage tips