What’s been happening: If you haven’t seen much from me in the last two weeks it is because we’ve been redoing my studio. I felt I needed more space as I’m beginning to work on larger pieces (see Nebula below) AND the clutter was getting to me. It seemed serendipitous that while I was deciding what to do in the studio, I was also starting an online encaustic course taught by Nancy Crawford and she had some pointers about studios. FYI: I’ve followed Nancy’s Youtube videos for a while; this course is all new material and I highly recommend it for beginners or experienced encaustic artists.
Changes to my studio: It seemed to me that I had too much… too much stuff, too much furniture, too much clutter. I moved out bookcases, a lateral file, a desk, most of my oil painting equipment (it’s close by for those moment when I want to use oil on my encaustic), and a bunch of old paintings and boards. I ended up with TWO shelving units (45 linear feet of storage) and TWO connected tables to hold my new wok and my encaustic palette and still have room to work (36 sq.ft. of space!). I took the cement board off the floor (where as Roy points out it NEVER belonged) and he built a plywood top for the tables and then, as Nancy suggested, we topped it with cement board. I treated the board with a couple of coats of microcrystalline wax (petroleum based and this type has a slightly higher melting point) which is supposed to make it easier to clean off my encaustic medium (see the middle photo below).
Someday: I’ll get around to changing what’s on the walls and clear off the top of the large flat files I used for storing paper, pads, sketchbooks, etc. But right now I am just anxious to crank up the wax and go. I’ve included a panorama of the room below too; even though it makes the worktables look funny it highlights how much light comes in. I love light!
