It's like bad urban sprawl in my studio these days. After repeated struggles to change my workspace from pastel to oil, I got sick of the "toggling" from one set up to another and I just decided to invest in a second easel. I'm chuckling at myself because now I'm becoming like one of those artists that I've seen photographed in books about "Artists in Their Studios." Y'know, the ones who have about thirty different easels and tubes of paint lying everywhere.
But in all seriousness, this is a big deal for me because I'm quite a minimalist with my set up. Unlike the stereotype of the eccentric artist, I don't like clutter and chaos. But I had a drafting table in the corner of my studio that I just didn't use any more, so I replaced it with another easel that will be used exclusively for my oil painting. This makes life a lot easier for me because I run an air filtration unit when I work with pastel, and it's not the easiest thing to take that apart and remove it each time I want to spontaneously pop an oil painting up and start working.
Behold Oil on masonite, 30" x 30".
Shown here is the spiffy new easel as well as a new cityscape in progress, "Behold." For me, this is a fairly large piece measuring 30" square. It's on Masonite in a 3" birch cradle and it's based on a study that I did in pastel earlier this year, Study, Behold. I still need to put the finishing touches on this piece, not least of which include the storefront window reflections to the properly set the depth of this composition. I've been sneaking in snippets of clandestine studio time to work on this in the midst of other work with my pastels. But I thought I would share a sneak preview with you as long as I'm yammering about the great furniture shuffle in my studio. Enjoy!
