Lost Creek neighborhood - plein air painting

When two "classmates" and I were painting, a lady took pictures of us to put in the neighborhood newsletter.

Nancy Collins (left), me (middle) and Laura Barrow (right).

This was taken when we were almost done painting. It was a cool morning so I didn’t mind being in the sun. I usually don’t paint with the tripod leg in between my legs. But I had to turn my easel so I could keep my palette and painting in the shade. You can see there is no more shade on the path.

Me at the easel.

A closer look at my setup for plein air.

Here the painting again.

Oil on canvas, 6 x 8"

Studio setup for pastel

I'm always interested to see how other artists are organized in their studio, so I thought this may interest someone too.

I'm always looking for better ways to organize my studio. It often distracts me from painting, but I have fun working on it and I gain so much by being well organized that it's worth it for me. Whenever I get an idea of what would work better and I know I can make it myself, then I need to work on it (design, material and execution, even in the 100F Texas heat). That's what happened last week.

I needed a better setup for my pastels and I needed a setup that would allow me to easily switch from pastel to oil painting with a minimum of things to move around.

So for pastels, I did two trays with lids. One pastel tray is for the semi-soft pastels and the other one for the soft ones (may change soon). The lid protects the pastels (or the cats) without having to put them (pastels or cats) away :). For easy access and to have a better view at the pastels, I put each tray on an angled shelf.

Pastel trays on angled shelves. The lid is on the left tray and the right tray is partially filled with semi-soft pastels.

Taking into account my studio space limitation, I also made the trays stackable and the shelves foldable for easy storage. You can see them all on the first two shelves.

For oil painting, I made another tray (smaller than the pastel ones). I can put it on the angled shelf when needed (no picture of that yet) or under the table (to the right on the first shelf in the picture above).

For the organization of the trays themselves, I need to work with this new setup for a while and find out what works best for me. Stay tuned :)

Oil studies: a little background

To answer one of the comments (by Holly) a while ago... I spent on average about 3 hours on my oil studies (hoping I'll get faster some time soon). I still don't have a big stack of them yet, since my first 57 were done on canvas sheets or canvas paper (see below). Since then I tried different panels (1/8" thick) that I hang around the studio.

I have a shelf around my studio at 6' height. It is wide enough to hold paintings but too narrow for the cats. I put small nails (10 so far) at the bottom of it to hang my small oil studies. I put tape on the back of each panel sticking out about an inch and I hang it with a paper clip. I can hang three panels per nail that way, so 30 panels at a time. I use the top of the shelf for everything else.

This is my easel setup with paintings hanging from the shelf and some framing tests on top of it.

My first 57 oil studies (6" x 6" and 6" x 8") were painted on 6" x 9" canvas sheets or canvas paper. This allowed me to not worry about making mistakes on more expensive support. Once dry they're very easy to pile up and store. Maybe I'll cut and mount my favorites on board or acid free foam core.