Art Interiors 'Inside the Artist's Studio'

There was much excitement around here last week as I had a special visitor on Friday morning. Patricia from Art Interiors came for a studio visit. Over green tea, we chatted about life, the art world, cats, and downtown living. 

I've been represented by Art Interiors for quite a few years now and so I'm honored to be featured on the gallery blog this week.  Inside the Artist's Studio. 

You can see all the photos and read the post here.

Studio Cats.

Working as an artist can be a very solitary profession. I spend many hours a day alone painting in my studio. As much as they frustrate me at times I don't know what I'd do without my studio cats to keep me company. 

They're older now and spend much of the day napping, but you can be sure to find them at the window on a sunny day when the birds are chirping. Or when I put down a drop cloth, or decide to work on the floor, they are right there on top of it all, toes in paint. Let me introduce you to my studio cats.

As wee kittens

 IGGY

her full name is Ignatowski Popoloni

I'll guard your canvas

NAMI

Nami was named after our favorite sushi restaurant

waterpark

I am Batman!

 too much catnip

sorry this sink is taken

I can help you with that

nom nom nom

drippies

sisters

A Quiet Moment.

Sometimes things can get extremely hectic here in the studio with art deadlines. When I need to take a break and have a 'Zen' moment, I make myself a green tea and sit down to watch my cat Nami, take a sunbath. I find it very relaxing and a great way to just 'be' for a short while. Want to try but don't have a cat of your own? To the internet!! Videos of cats grooming a plenty.

My Studio Table Uncensored and Unedited.

Today's blog post is part of a collaborative pop-up on Seth Apter's blog 'The Altered Page'. Seth has asked all participating artists to share their studio tables uncensored and unedited. After reading my post you can head over to the Altered Page and find links to all the other participating artists. Join the party!!

My studio table was purchased at Ikea about 10 years ago. I wanted to get one with a glass top so I could get messy on it and any acrylic paint or mediums could just be scraped away with a paint scraper. Quick and easy clean-up. I fell in love with this one at the store and the fact that it's the color of beach glass was a bonus. It was table love at first site.

When we moved 4 years ago my trusty studio table now had to double as a dining room table. Not a problem except that I'm not really big on tidying it up at the end of the day so we are usually eating dinner 'Big Bang Theory' style, on the couch holding plates in our laps.

As I am a fine artist and use my easel for large canvases, my studio table is usually piled high with art supplies that I'm using, inspiration sketches, tear sheets from magazines, and just about everything that I might need while working. And of course much needed mugs of coffee or green tea.

When I'm working on small paintings or mixed media work, I can pull up a chair and work right at my studio table. It's large enough to hold supplies with room enough for a nice work area too.

And when we have dinner guests invited my studio table gets the full treatment and gets used for dining. Cheers.

Coffee Talk with I.C.

I recently had a long, very emotional conversation with I.C. about being an artist. We spoke about what it's like making art for a living.  About being true to yourself, moments of self doubt, handling rejection, speaking to future clients and gallery owners about your art, and all that's involved with getting your work 'out there' via all the different social media platforms. Here is just a small sampling of our conversation.

Me: I had such a great morning. I painted a whole bunch of small practice pieces to warm up before I start on that large canvas painting. You know, one of the cityscapes I'm doing for my November show.

I.C.:  You mean those dark and gloomy city scenes you've been painting?

Me:  Yes, and they're not dark and gloomy. They're dramatic. And people like them. I've sold so many through my galleries, and besides, they've been on TV and in a magazine! I feel I'm sort of known for them now.

I.C.  Did you take any photos while you were painting? The practice pieces I mean, let me see.

Me:  I have a couple on my phone. Here. What do you think?

I.C.:  OMG! These are SOOOOOO gorgeous!! You should be selling THESE!

Me:  Really?? But these are just for practice, just to warm myself up. Confession. I absolutely love them! They are beautiful. But they're just little abstracts. Little color practice pieces. (big long sigh) I DO love painting these though. They're so much fun and the colors are so bright and cheery. I just can't be in a bad mood painting these and I totally lose all sense of time when I work on these. I'm so in the moment. But I can't show these. Seriously? It's so different from what I usually paint.

I.C. Yeah, your right. Forget I said anything. I've seen alot of this kind of art 'out there' anyway. But it seems to me if this is the kind of painting that makes you happy and feeds your soul, this is what you should be painting.

And that ended my conversation with I.C. I went back to my paints and continued painting the little practice paintings I was doing. And when I was done warming up, I began painting a large canvas with splashes of bright color. This is happening. Who is I.C. you ask? My Inner Critic. And this conversation ended on a happy note :-)

Studio Changes.

My studio has certainly changed from the time I decided to turn my passion for painting into my career. 

I started out painting very small paintings on the dining room table.

When we moved into a larger apartment there was more space available to me and I progressed to larger works and invested in an easel.

A few years later we moved again this time purchasing a loft/condo in the entertainment district, in downtown Toronto.

I now have a cozy little corner studio that I work from. It's on the southwest corner of the building so I get plenty of beautiful sunlight. My morning commute is fantastic. It's about 6 steps.

Technically my studio space is smaller but it seems much larger thanks to 10' high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows.

It's also easy for me to move furniture out of the way in case I have to spread out and work on the floor. I've done this for some larger paintings and mixed media work.

Next year in June it will be 4 years that we've lived here and my little studio space has been changed quite a few times.

Yet, I've still to purchase proper lights to paint by during these  gloomy cloudy and dark days of winter.

Changes are coming once again. Walls have been painted and some new furniture has been purchased.

My special collaboration with Sharon Grech is coming along and a date for the 'after' shoot for our Cityline segment has been set.

I'm really getting excited about it as it's now all coming together. It won't be long now.

Living and Working in a Live Work Space.

We moved into our loft/condo in June of 2010. It was a fairly quick process in that we started looking in April and ended up closing the deal and moving in June. Because I have my studio space in my home, it was important that I 'set up house' and my studio rather quickly. As it happened it was about 2 weeks of organizing, packing, moving, unpacking and not painting.

I wanted to get back to work as quickly as possible so I organized the space as best I could in a hurry. Unpacked boxes and put things in their new place. I even made use of the few screws that were left in the wall to hang artwork thinking I could get to it in time. 

So here we are three years later and not too much is different from when we moved in. I'm still not really happy with the 'flow' of the layout. Thanks to the builders vision there was certainly not much choice as to how I arranged the living area, working area, pet area etc. We Have beautifully large windows (which I love) but very limited wall space for hanging artwork. This is a bit of a problem as on occasion I have clients visiting to purchase my paintings. I want my space to be a reflection of the beautiful spaces in my fave decorating magazines where my artwork has appeared.

Living and working in the same space can be crazy and chaotic but it provides a lot of freedom as well. Much time is spent preparing to paint, searching for supplies and cleaning up afterwards. After all my work table also doubles as our dining table. 

So I've set a goal for myself to tackle this design dilemma once and for all. I know there is much I could do with my live/work space to make it more conducive to creativity and visually stunning. I've made myself a binder to keep all my tear sheets of design inspiration, ideas, and paint chips. I'll be updating some shelving in the studio and I'm finally getting work together and framing some pieces for an art wall that I've been dreaming of for years now.

This will be a big job but one that I'm finally ready to take on. Although I have no problem making decisions about paint colors in my art, and I think I've done a fairly good job of making use of the space we have, I think it's time I called on a professional for help. Stay tuned.

Help-I Need a Studio Makeover.

I have been moving canvases from one spot to the other and then moving them back. I've been shuffling piles, large piles of home decor and art magazines. I've been cleaning and wiping and fumbling with out dated storage options with drawers that stick. I've been using a curse word here and there. I should be painting!!!! 

My studio has been driving me crazy. We've been in our condo for about 18 months now and the way I originally set up the floor plan is not working, at least not in my little 3'x5' space I call my 'studio'. Before I even start putting paint to canvas I'm moving furniture out of the way, putting protective sheeting on the floor and struggling with piles of stuff. (I don't know how those hoarders do it.)

 Here's my studio as I left it last night. 

 My work table is also our dining table. Needless to say we eat many of our dinners on the couch.

Some of these canvases are finished paintings that will be delivered this week. The others are in various stages of completion.

I've been busy and my business is growing. Major gratitude here! I have a few shows coming up and my galleries are asking me for new work. On average it takes me about 30-45 minutes to set up to work (and the same to clean up) but honestly, there are days I just avoid it altogether. All this un-organization and clutter is zapping my creativity. If there is a design goddess or an organization faerie reading this, please come to my studio and wave your magic wand.