Here’s a recent post by Stapleton Kearns. He writes a wonderful blog describing his landscape painting techniques and all things professional. He is posting less often now – busy painting – but you could spend years reading his backlog.
In this post he describes his studio. Ah, for northern light.
http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-little-studio-and-line-of-tape-on.html
The sudden surge in painting projects forced me to accelerate plans to turn the third, small garage bay into studio space. It needs a total rebuild but no time for that right now.
So, on a recent Friday night, James got in from work and wanted to start on the revamp right away.
Here’s what the space looked like when we started:
What a Mess!
Ninety minutes later, the space looked like this:
Whew, that’s better!
A trench and grass to divert or absorb water; nasty old shelving removed and the beginnings of a Tyvec enclosure.
By mid-afternoon Saturday:
James covered the ceiling and three walls in Tyvec to give me a lighter space and separate me from the nasty framing. I confess, there are areas where there is only Tyvek between me and the great outdoors.
Ready to Go!
I also confess, the space doesn’t look nearly that tidy one week on. It’s already chock-o-block with projects and supplies.
Just the way we like it.
I don’t think my studio will ever make the pages of the “Where Women Work” publication but it works for me.
What’s your creative space like?
I am still scrambling to catch this blog up but here’s the latest:
I am painting again. (Woooo!)
A series of events all pointed towards getting the studio back up and running so I’m hard at it. I will be focusing on painted furniture, decorative panels and murals. Once that is underway, I will also delve into a backlog of fine art ideas – all bursting for realization.
I have committed to a new venue to display finished pieces and make myself available for commissions. (More on that coming soon!)
The painting will be my day job between insurance adjusting opportunities.
The historical novel continues to develop. I am nailing down some important research as I approach the next major section of the plot. Inching forward. The key is to keep at it daily so I never lose the train of thought and energy for the story. So far, no danger of that. I still get excited every time I approach it.
More to follow.
THIS blog will remain a personal catch-all. I am developing a separate blog to focus on historical fiction that takes place outside the United States and Western Europe:
I will probably include most of those posts here also, as this is my personal hub.
The first few posts there provide an explanation of it’s purpose and some news for the genre. Please feel free to venture over and have a look.
Next up here: some iPhone images of our “new” 1920s house and some of the renovations accomplished thus far.
Stay Tuned.
And now, it’s been even longer this time. Two reasons:
1) Twitter bought Posterous so I had to move my blog.
I’ve finally imported it to WordPress and am learning my way around.
2) The Day Job was grinding at six day weeks, 10 hour days.
I quit.
Yikes. But I have a plan. So we won’t worry about that just now.
Summary of my news:
I am reduced to an iPhone camera. My Nikon D70 is locked up. It might be fixable but I haven’t had the nerve to take it for a look-see. And, newly self-employed again, I’m not in a position to replace it.
Also, Luddite that I am, as much as I LOVE digital photography, I still balk at the cameras. I just can’t LOVE scrolling through menus. I long for the old days when I could set my camera manually for shot after shot, in the dark, without ever looking at the thing. My fingers knew where to find each button and dial, my brain could track my last shutter and aperture. The Leica M series looks the part but is a range finder. I’m not sure how that would feel. It’s also, cough, cough, a little beyond my budget at the mo.
So, iPhone camera it is for now.
Next item:
When the day job schedule made getting to my downtown studio impossible, I decided it was time to go truly insane. I’ve started writing a book. Not just any book. I’ve finally started on the historical novel that’s been running around my head for 20 years. It was easier to start a writing project at 5am sitting in a 25′ RV than trying to get to my studio. So, I did.
The project is underway and I’ll share more about it in the future.
I’ve also just started another blog: Long Ago and Far Away – check it out!
The other cool news is:
We bought a house. No more RV for us. No sir. A real house. I loved our marsh cottage in Virginia. Hated to part with it. Never imagined I would have one with half so much character. Ha. Wait until you see what we’ve got! (future post!)
We also bought a second house – down the street from the first. No, we didn’t win the lottery. We are some of the few who managed to buy during this super difficult market. Don’t begrudge us. We had to SELL one in this market too. And this additional house, currently a rental, is for my parents to live in once we get them moved down here. It’s also going to be a gem – but it needs boatloads of work. Poor Hubby.
There’s lots more to tell but we’ll get started with this.
Thanks to Heather Roper for featuring my large stencil project on her blog!
In August 2009 I visited my nephew in Tamraght, Morocco.
We made a mad dash up the coast to Essaouira for a 48 hour trip. During that short time I took
over 650 photos.
That was a lot easier than finally getting to translate
some of that experience into paint.
These two are the first of a series. They are both acrylic on paper – images are approximately 17″x27″.
AVAILABLE: $600.00 – Unframed.
The scenic artist in me can’t resist architectural detail. I painted this capital in September as an exercise in tonality.
The reference is a photograph I took several years ago at the National
Cathedral in Washington, DC.
Although I don’t anticipate making a series of detail images, I will always
have an eye to interesting architecture and you will see evidence of such in
the near future.