Paint tubes organizer - my latest addition in the studio

Last project I did was for the paint tubes that are pilling up in my studio. This was inspired by Liz Steel's wall unit http://bit.ly/1ub3fzP. 

6-foot long shelf with 35 hooks.

The shelf is wide enough for small containers and too narrow for a cat 
With paper clips I can hang a few paint tubes on each hook. 

The shelf is handy by the easel and it saves me space. There are a few available hooks for my oils...

The paint tubes used to be in boxes on the table to the left side of the easel
taking some precious flat surface space. Now they are hanging under the window.

New studio

I've been working in my new studio for the last few months. I did some color swatches (again), some reading and experimentation... not much to show you, but let me start with my new studio. I have three "stations": the computer station, which I've tried to keep small. Now if I could spend the time in proportion of its size... The easel station for painting and a sitting station with a drafting table for reading,.. I have a few shelving projects in mind to make the studio more practical, but so far so good...

The computer desk and (one of ) the art and office supplies storage.

The easel station. To its right there is a still life stand  that I use to setup still lifes or a digital picture frame (for reference pictures).  To the left of the easel there is a tool chest for drawings and painting accessories and supplies. 

Sitting station (with a drafting table) for planning, reading, etc... You can see some color swatches and recent paintings hanging on the wall.  

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.