Fresh Start Week! - prepping the studio

Previous set of paintings done, new ideas gathered, paints ordered... what next?

Well, the studio is (no question about it) in a state of chaos. After each set it always is. So I have a good old tidy up. Things get put away. Finished work packed. Furniture rearranged. Floor swept. Rags put in trug. Table cleared. All pints returned to their shelf or basket.

This time I had a bit more of a project to do. It turns out that due to several financial commitments coming up over the course of the winter (overdraft, university tuition fees, tax bill) I must postpone the idea of having my handyman friend come make my studio the beautiful perfect thing I envision. Which is fine, it inspired me to do what tasks I could, compromise on making spaces workable rather than visually ideal.



One major task was to lay plywood over all my wooden timbers then paint it white to create larger flat white work areas, since I paint with the canvas directly on the wall. The diagonal timber support created last week is now a more permanent solution than intended, which is fine. I may just put a few more elsewhere. So the other important step was white paint - the yellow timber creates too much "business" in the room and is distracting. So I painted all my timber (and the masonry wall around the window) with my remaining white paint from the original studio build. (You can see the pre-version here.)

Ignore all the clutter in the middles! That's all happily back in its proper place now.

So clean and tidy, to an extreme this time. Ready for new canvases!



Next:
Sketching. Yes, actually artwork of a sort.