My new North Carolina Art Studio

I'm happy to say that my new art studio is done. We were able to spend all day yesterday working on getting it set up because of hurricane Florence. We are on the fringes of it and did not get any bad weather yesterday but because they were telling everyone to stay home we did.  That gave us a whole day to work on the studio. We are getting some rain today so will stay home again and I will start a new painting.  It is over 3 months since I held a paintbrush in my hand. 

Here are photos of my studio.

The studio is located on the second level in the open loft area.  This is the largest work space I have ever had.  The size of the room is 17' X 17' which is even bigger than the basement studio I had in MI.  Roger installed peg board on one wall.  I set up my painting area by that wall.  My prep table and framing table are in the middle of the room.  I have two places that I put my grid walls to hang new paintings.  You can see one set of grids in the above photo with a few of the paintings I brought with me.  The photo below shows the other set of grids with a few more paintings but a big empty area waiting for my new work.

The room is big enough for me to have a sewing corner.

This is a table with the small art I did before we left Michigan.  I was thinking ahead to the Holiday Show when I decided to concentrate on working on small paintings.  I had no idea at that time that I would  be leaving MI and moving to NC in July!

I don't think I mentioned in my last post that I joined the Burlington Artist League.  They have a gallery in the Holly Hills Mall.  I plan to show my work there and will be entering their Annual Regional Fine Arts Competition.  I will be attending a meeting next Thursday.  I am happy to be able to meet other artists and to get information on opportunities to show art.

The next photo is a close up of my painting area.  In the past I have had Roger build me long narrow shelves for my paint bottles.  They always looked nice but I usually removed the bottles and set them on my painting table when I was working on a project.  I decide to try something different this time.  I set all the bottles on a desk grouped according to color.  I can look at the color spot on the top of the bottle to pick out what I want.  If this doesn't work I will then have new shelves built.  I have always liked having a U shaped painting area.  I work on a low table propping my canvas on my knee.  I have everything I need handy and can swivel my chair around to get what ever I need.  I think I am going to like working here.  I got a new colorful lamp that I can adjust to give me lots of light.

The one negative to this shop is that I have no sink in the room itself but there is a bathroom close by that will be my source of water. 

Here is my "Brag Board" and my Art Studio letters which I proudly display.

And.... here am I ready to start painting in my new studio. 

I have been thinking of what subject matter to paint and realized that everything old is new again!  No one here has seen my colorful animals or for that matter anything I have painted before so I will dig out the old patterns and do new versions of things I have done in the past before I move on to new subjects.  I'll post photos of my "NEW-OLD" as soon as I get paintings completed.