In the voice and eminent attitude of Julie Andrews voicing “Lady Whistledown”, I want to say hello, dear readers…
The past year, I’ve quietly been making some changes. No, they don’t impact any of my fabulous supporters, fans or followers — fret not! But it has meant that I’ve been a little slow to update my website and to share all the new pieces I’ve made! There is a reason for that. A lot of it has to do with current events and changes… some on a personal level, some on a more broad level that has impacted artists.
Hold up a second. Did your brain just whizz to a particular topic? Do you think you know what I am going to say? If so, you might be experiencing a little of this ‘doom and gloom’, too! But it might be an entirely different reason than you expect me to saay say.
Of course it is hard to write seriously when my keyboard wants to add double vowels and consonants every time I type something. So this may be a struggle for me. Yes, been having computer issues too. Thank you, world! Now if you notice any wordss that look like they might belong in a dutch newspaper with too many repeated letters, you know it’s not for lack of ability but because my computer is rising against me.
Many artists, like myself, are a little easily spooked when there is something dangerous on the horizon. Some might say it is intuition, some might say observation. Whatever it is — we watch. We wait. We evaluate how it might effect us before we continue about our day. It’s a matter of survival, really. We can’t all be a Darwin statistic! Who’d want to be? And of course there are life events, as well! So in this blog, I want to address a few things, just in case any of you have come across the same.
There are three distinct topics. I don’t want to give you whiplash as I discuss all three at once, so instead I will break it in to three separate blog posts.
This one is about: my new studio!
It’s Dangerous Out there
You’ll Need This.
New Studio
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New Studio 〰️
Firstly: I’ve put together a new studio! It is my home away from home. Its purpose is for traditional art — watercolor, oil painting, gouache, etc. I’ve never had the dedicated space and place to do that before. And I’m ecstatic to share more of it with you! You may have noticed I’ve been publishing more videos of traditional painting… and this is part of that! I’m very excited to see how it goes. It meant a lot of personal investment — both in time and resources — but after a year or so of working on it between projects, I finally had it pieced together. I have to admit, I am loving it. Boy did it take its time, though!
I have a corner set up for painting at a desk, another desk set up for painting digital, and a whole vintage easel set up to do oil painting! I KNOW! It’s a dream come true. And I’ve hung up actual oil paintings by long-dead artists to inspire me. You all know I am a massive art history fan — so it should come as no shock that my walls would be reflecting my inspiration. Because of the tall ceilings in my studio, I’m allowed to have the extra big paintings, too! I just pray they don’t fall down, and kill me. I would literally die. Literally.
Embracing the old
Because I am so tired of the ‘new’ coming out lately. I crave actual material and longevity. So meet one of my many new bronze and brass pieces that help keep my books in place! Haha.
And honestly sometimes I don’t sleep enough, but it’s all been worth the renovations and the careful selections of colour and accessories and shelving. It’s so vital to make a room your own — some place where you can breathe and feel safe in your space. You know what I mean?
I’m gushing, I can tell. So sorry. I am just so excited about my studio. Please don’t think badly of me for being happy.
I also did research to find out what ‘colour’ of walls artists historically used in their studio — and the consensus was a mid-grey green. French grey, actually. But a lot of French grey tones that come in the buckets nowadays are not the same as the ones they would use back then. It is too mild, too gray. Not saying it is bad… it’s just not what I am looking for! So I finally found one, after a long while researching.
Tangent: when I research, I dive in to this hole that I might not come back out of for a week. It is the one time when I forget to go to the gym or eat — it’s not exactly a healthy habit. But yet here I am.
Been using a lot of watercolor, poster paint, and gouache.
Oil, too, but I’m more self-conscious of that.
Anyhow. The one I ended up going for was F+B (that’s how the fancy people say it because it means if you know the abbreviation, you’re cool enough to know what it stands for). I had to try saying it. The full name is Farrow and Ball. It’s a British(?) paint company that specializes in water based paints and classic looks! But it is fabulous for us because as it is water based, it has no fumes and is magic! And healthy! So we went with that. And in the color French Gray, in Dead Flat. The Dead Flat look is similar enough to what artists of yore would have used on their walls, with minimal sheen and a distemper look. The French Grey is a light mid grey-green, which is ideal for studio walls and (in my case) the ceiling, too!
I am very happy with it! More photos of the studio later, after I get more paintings on the wall, I think!
The reason that French gray is sought after for artist studio waalls walls is because, when doing portraits, the green would not be as guilty as leading your eye with the reds as another wall colour may have been! See, if you paint skin tones… and your walls are white or black — and especially if you have a model in the room — you might end up making the reds kind of dull and bricky. But if you have a background that neutralizes that effect and compliments the skin tones in the shadows of what you see on your model, or the tint of the paint on your canvas … your paintings will look better! And to make it even better — because French gray is so mild and compliments so many other colours, it really won’t argue with anything on your canvas! And therefore it won’t affect the view of the painting while painting. Perfect.
I’ve also feng shui’d my whole studio (and house). Thankfully my partner lets me do what I want when it comes to decorations — which is great for me, because I am a slightly Type A person, haha.
More pictures later! And in the next blog post I will address some of the other things that have been on the artistic public conscience lately.
Thank you for your patience <3
Lothlenan (Andrea)