My humble home studio is expanding all the time and I’m finding that organisation is getting harder with the amount of stuff I continue to collect. I’m running out of space and need to expand. I’ve found some of the most gorgeous pictures of home studios online and compiled them together on my Pinterest site. The storage ideas are just divine!
The photos below are pockets of chaos from my own little artsy space, in the spare bedroom.
Since I’ve been back from Europe, I’ve had an endless pool of inspiration swishing about in my head. I started painting from some of the photos I took during the trip, experimenting with techniques and figuring out what works for me and what doesn’t.
I’ve never been one for painting landscapes of any kind (especially from a photograph), unless I abstract them, but I wanted to be true to my subject matter without boring myself to tears. So far I’ve limited myself to using only palette knives to enforce a looser and quicker process. Each painting is done in a couple of hours and I’m enjoying the change. I finish each painting in one sitting, as I know I may never come back to it if I let it span more than a day.
Jersey
The above painting I completed yesterday afternoon. This is a farmhouse in Jersey. Probably the first real turret I have ever seen.
The canvas is not very big – 40 x 50 cm. Palette knife and oil paint.
So my Europe trip is coming to an end. It’s almost time to be flying home. Which is not such a bad thing actually. I’m looking forward to getting back to my new apartment and my cozy bed. It’s exhausting living out of a suitcase. I won’t mind if I don’t see another train again for a long time.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to do as much on-site drawing or painting as I would have liked, however, I can’t wait to get back and start some oils. I’ve realised that sketching and watercolours only really inspire me in Plein Air. I can’t bring myself to sketch or watercolour from reference photographs. I need my oils and my canvas.
I’m in Copenhagen at the moment – it’s freezing cold and wet. Then back to London for a night before flying back to Asia.
This trip has been surreal to say the least. There were moments when I knew where I was; when there was no denying that I was standing in the middle of The Sistine Chapel, neck craned in an unnatural fashion, staring at the creation of man; or perched on a bridge over-looking a narrow canal lined with beautiful Venetian architecture – yet at the same time trying to convince myself that I was actually doing it. That it wasn’t something I was watching happen. It was me.
Very strange. I had to stare at the Eiffel Tower, unblinking, to believe I was looking at it and not some strange peeping tom using my eyes.
It has been an amazing trip. Hopefully, I’ll be back to see all the other stuff I missed. For now, I’m looking forward to some Thai food.
Next week I will be getting on a plane and flying to Europe for the first time in my existence! Paris, London, Venice and Rome! Cities that have existed only in my imagination. Such grand and romantic histories.
Words can not express my awe. I will gaze up at the Sistine chapel, mouth agape; touch with my fingertips, the ruins of Rome; zip through the Louvre as fast as I can; lose myself in the Venetian canals. For someone who has grown up in Asia their whole life – even someone that is half British – Europe is a place of fairy tales.
But in 12 Days, there I’ll be. Seeing what I have only ever experienced through photographs. Smelling the air. Feeling the energy.
It is going to be spectacular!
Dear Young Artist,
Thanks for the lucid note. I am envious of your age and your handwriting…nothing I can do about the former or the latter, hence the typed response. Rather than frame my reply to you in poetic terms, I have constructed a list of things you might want to remember as you continue on your chosen path in visual art. As you read them, imagine me yelling them at you with urgency!
First and foremost you must remember that ARTISTS DRIVE THE BUS. It is an easy thing to forget. We sometimes feel we are at the bottom of the heap (artist as victim). But for an artist in his/her studio, working in relative isolation and producing objects from imagination, there is nothing of what we call the art world – no critics, no curators, no art historians or art history departments, no museums, no art books or art libraries, no magazines, no auction houses, and, finally , no galleries. The entire enterprise is built on one central event: the creative act in the studio. I mean no arrogance here, but it is simply true. I don’t know whether we are plankton or the whale, but we are indispensable.
That said, LET YOUR STUDIO BE YOUR SANCTUARY. Have no illusions…the art business, despite the pretension that surrounds “cultural products”, has more in common with other businesses than it does with art. When your work leaves your studio and moves into the world, its character changes. One doesn’t need to consult a Marxist to understand that art is a luxury commodity. You learn to live with this fact (and find ways of justifying it), but in the studio things are different. Within that space you create and take chances, destroy, and create again. If the marketplace finds its way (spiritually) into that studio you have abdicated your essential power. Keep your studio clear from concerns of the marketplace. You might have to dance with the wolves but you can still keep them near the door.
Speaking of work in the studio – DON’T BE AFRAID TO DO DUMB THINGS IN THE STUDIO. Artists can’t get anywhere beyond the familiar and the pre validated without risking being ridiculous. We would not have Guston’s late work had he not willingly risked “dumbness.”
A quick one – KEEP AWAY FROM ART FAIRS. Instead visit a museum and spend time in a wing housing art from centuries past. You will be rejuvenated not demoralized.
SUPPORT YOUR FELLOW ARTISTS AS THEY SUPPORT YOU. Your best community is your peer group of fellow artists. Openings are wonderful events, when artists come together to celebrate one another. Sure, they are great places to extend your network, but they are primarily events to extend community beyond the studio. We live in a country where culture is marginalized…all the more reason we should support our own efforts. Artists like Joan Mitchell, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Andy Warhol all set up foundations to help artists in perpetuity. What a testament to their generosity!
READ BIOGRAPHIES OF ARTISTS. The lives of other artists can illuminate various ways to approach your own life as an artist, and those narratives can also help you see beyond the conditions of our particular time.
It’s great to have lots of shows and sell lots of work but that alone will not fulfill you. To paraphrase the late, wise painter Harvey Quaytman – A LIFE IN ART IS A LONG RACE NOT A SHORT SPRINT. Can you imagine a rich shape for your creative life beyond the standard measures of fame and financial success? If you begin to answer that question when you are young, you will have a leg up when you find yourself in your mid and late career.
All the best,
Gregory Amenoff
New York
