A weeks worth of paint and canvas

WOW! A truly full week - a new sidekick "Rusty", a Friday night opening at Crossroads and construction started on my studio renovation. So my studio is a cluttered mess. I'm working in one small end during construction. 

 Table is set for hungry Friday night art grazers

My new sidekick "Rusty" arrived from Tuscon, Arizona last Sunday. He's a deep red apricot miniature poodle from Redscape If you're looking for a gorgeous healthy puppy, Sherry and Rick have em. He's in the toy box stage and teething...razor sharp!

My temporary work station with my jury rigged LED lighting. I Found an old school desk in the loft and converted it to a rolling palette by adding casters and a paper towel holder - it already had a glass top I was using as a palette......and a pullout shelf. I'm keeping this thing...

So why the construction? I have a new wall hung easel coming and my studio ceiling had to be modified to accept it. My new easel will actually handle a 96" high canvas...a bit more than needed. Since I prefer standing while painting, my studios 8-foot ceiling is problematic for anything over 48" high and not able to handle much more than a 60" high canvas without a step stool or an occasional 72" by crawling on the floor....then I stand a chance of extra help from puppy paws.

Currently I have a nice counterweight Paint Master easel from Jerry's I like very much; until I found the Hughes easel....check this thing out (watch video). It's truly a smooth counterweight easel with effortless finger touch action....mine is not.

I had to put my designer hat on to figure a way of getting my cake and eating it too and more importantly affordable. The solution in our case was to open up a 6' section of the ceiling at the end of my studio going into the roof crawl space - easy with our existing truss system. It allowed me to have skylights on the North and South roof slope that will wash the face of my canvas. My canvas will go up between the trusses an additional 3 or 4 feet - my 8' ceiling just turned into 11' or 12'. Now I can reach the bottom of my canvas, however not the top without a ladder....all the ceiling height in the world won't solve that.  The only feasible solution was to go down which we could do because of an existing crawl space.  We will also recess a 30" pocket into the floor allowing me to reach the top of an 96" canvas without a stool. 

A simple pocket running between the truss system would have sufficed with or without skylights or solar light tubes. 

The real jewel of this solution is the floor pocket because I would have given up ceiling height to put the top of my canvas at eye level and not use a step stool.  If painting large, it's critical being able to continually step back.....problem solved!

Before

The original idea was to open only the first slot at windows and a corresponding slot in the floor allowing my canvas to go up or down. The second slot was included for the skylights to evenly wash my canvas face and the front work space (only place good light is needed) also supplemented with LED track lighting 

Opened up

Some days later - ready for mud & tape

 Long view shown with my existing easel about 4:00 in afternoon...essentially North light

 MY ONE PAINTING OF THE WEEK

This one went though a number of sun changes - never could get exactly what I wanted...except one I got by fooling with it in Photoshop. I like the mood and my sun is large and very defined - more of what I wanted. 

Too late for this one - better to close it up and start fresh.

Photoshop version - day 2

 

FINAL VERSION

 #817 HOP 40x44 oil on linen (5-22-13)
Full sun shot 

DETAILS

I added some work boats to my composition (not in original reference)

Later....