A peep in my studio

Colours

Today I received something in the mail I wanted to own by myself for ages. In some way I always found it a kind of 'tool' not intended for me. It was meant for shops. But every time I noticed those small colour samples in the paint shop, I stole a few of them and add them to my other few thumbed strips. It didn't make sense and it took too long to steal every colour that exist.
Now I bought a mature 2-part book with 2058 colors. Every page contains 7 colors and every colour is divided in 6 mini-stickers.
I have started to cut off 1 sticker of each color and throw them in a bowl, to grab with closed eyes, for some unusual combinations.

Pieces of scrap paper for every painting in progress

There are always about 4 or 5 works in progress hanging in my house, in different dry condition. I add one layer of paint and then it needs to dry before I add the next layer or refine the details. Btw: layers are not always covering a whole painting from corner to corner.
If one of them is sitting on my easel again, I always have difficulties to re-connect with the painting in question. Sometimes they have been in rest for weeks and sometimes even for months. But every time it seems I need hours or days before I know how to work further on it, like an interrupted conversation. Most of the times my first attempts are quite pointless too.

To prevent this 'stumbling', I always write down a kind of start-up for the next reunion. To all of my paintings there belongs a little scrap paper with the receipt of the most important color mixes of that painting. Also the state of oiliness of the medium of the last applied layer is important to know. And than the start-up. That can be something like: "Next time start with a darker glaze for the shadow sides of the barks. Or "start to pink the horizon".
It maybe sound like silly reminders, but the moments they came up I'm in the best conceivable work flow to just that particular painting. In those flows I know exactly what the best order of layers or details is. The only problem are the huge interruptions.
I found out the written start-ups helped me a lot to restart. They quickly pull me back into the painting.
I LURRRV to-do lists.

Children's drawings from the seventies

When I was scanning some old pictures, I saw this photo of my Mum, with a familiar looking drawing pinned to the wall. Not because I was the kid who created this drawing, but because I knew I still had this particular drawing somewhere in the few boxes I lug with me through my life.
The painting turned out to be 39 years old. In the corner was written 'Patricia 5 years old'.
Would Rembrand be a mediocre drawer too when he was 5 years old? Hehehe ... certainly! ;-)
Maybe the only unusual aspect I already had in my younger years could be the preference for non-blue skies.
One year later details start appearing; A chandelier which -looking at the back bulbs- attempted me to make a kind of perspective. A bracket for the hanging painting and a kind of anchor above the front door.
And although a perspectively correct opening fence was probably beyond me, I found a good lock important enough to draw.

So, thàt's what the long hair brushes are for!

I use the liners only for painting grass. I mix 3 or 4 different shades of green (my favorite is yellow & black in stead of yellow & blue) and I heavily liquidize the seperate mixes with a lot of medium.
Then, with quick movements, I strike every single blade on the canvas.
No, this time I don't count them.



This is a part of the painting with the Gooseberries, a couple of entries below.

Easel

One of the best things I recently bought is this new easel. Well.... it's not really an easel and it's not new either.
In the last couple of weeks my old easel slowly but surely started falling apart. It's one of those fancy wooden artists easels but I have never been quite happy with it. While looking for a new one I realized that the commonly sold studio easels don't really fit my working method. My style of painting requires me to work very close to the canvas and I move my work around a lot. Amazingly traditional easels don't really allow for that, adjustments are pretty coarse. And even the most expensive models are quite inadequate from an ergonomics perspective.
A second hand drawing board proved to be the best solution for me. They are cheap because most architects/engineers have switched to computer aided design. And functionality and ergonomics are really much better.

Time

Time is a very important factor in the creation of my work. I use slow drying oil paints so I have to work on 3-4 paintings simultaneously. Each painting requires a specific buildup. This means I work with a rotation schedule and some paintings might take months from start to finish. Apart from the technical aspects, the drying also forces me to stand back and reflect on a painting in progress. After working in close contact on a canvas for a while, it's always refreshing to see it in another light and from a distance.

Framed

I paint my canvasses all the way around the edges so they can be displayed without framing. But a proper frame does give them an extra touch. It's very much like a monitor or tv-screen; the frame seperates the image from it's surroundings.
I like to use a so called 'floating frame', which attaches to the back of the painting. Because this kind of frame only shows a very small edge, it provides a framework without being too prominent. The frame I prefer is black except for the front edge, which is gold or silver depending on the colours I used in the painting.

Crystal

When I'm setting up a new painting I always try to make a model of the ideas I have in mind. Most of the time these models are rather simple shapes made from clay, foam or card board. While working on my bamboo painting I decided to take it a bit further and create a sculpture based on the same design. For the bamboo shoots I wanted to use brightly coloured glass 'growing' out of a bronze base.
Fortunately one of the world's top glass factories is located in New Zealand and they have an exciting range of casting materials. Unfortunately glass is quite a difficult material to work with. It has taken me months of testing to figure out the whole process and get the desired effect. I start with making a ceramic 'mother' model from which I take plaster moulds. Next I fill these moulds with glass frit which are heated to 800°C in my wee little kiln. This melts the small bits of glass into one big piece of crystal. After cooling I remove the mould material and finish the rough castings by polishing and partly sandblasting them. Each sculpture will require about 70 individual pieces so there's quite a bit of manual labour involved.
The pictures show some of the different colours and finishes and the way they reflect incoming light. Imagine dozens of those bright shiny crystals! For now I have to finish the bronze base of the sculpture though...