Tuesday, February 26, 2013

switcheroo or, let there be light

I love to move furniture around in our house...everything old seems new again. However, with the purchase of a 5-ton sleeper sofa, installation of hanging lights over the dining table and the addition last summer of a super heavy Sleep Number bed, the furniture I can move is dwindling and I don't like that. I long to recreate and renew living/working spaces.

On this blog, you've seen my studio painted and repainted, arranged and rearranged. Through it all, my office area has stayed in the same corner for more than 20 years. That is, until last week.

One of the galleries that represents me asked for larger oils and I couldn't imagine how I would paint larger in my current studio set up. So, I began to ponder switching my office corner with my painting corner. Once I measured, and was willing to give up my old Boeing Surplus metal desk because it just wouldn't fit, I got excited to make the change. Just one problem, as bad as the lighting was on my easel, in its current location, it would be even worse in the opposite corner. My husband to the rescue! He offered to replace the overhead fluorescent light with track lighting. Hooray!

I won't go into the details of what a big mess it made to make the switch or what three days of lifting, shoving, sorting and organizing felt like, I'll just show you the before and after photos.
 
before

after
The two photos above are the Southeast corner of the studio (before it was my studio, it was a double car garage). The top photo is the painting area as it used to be: one side of my Boeing Surplus drafting table held pastels for the easel tucked back in the corner and the other side of the table is covered with glass for oil painting. My Open Box M on a tripod was at end and very convenient to trip over. The other photo shows the same area but now it is my office.
 
before

after
The two photos above show the Southwest corner, first as the long-time office and now as my new painting area with pastels on the drafting table to the left of the easel and the glass area for oil painting on the right. And, because of the track lighting, I can actually SEE. I look forward to painting!

6 comments:

  1. You have quite a yummy sense of color. Enjoyed perusing your blog.

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  2. Thank you! I just became a follower of your beautiful work.

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  3. Beautiful, Barbara! Looks like it will work efficiently and practically! What a gorgeous space. You've got all your "tools" handy, and it exudes warmth and personality! What a dream studio!!!

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  4. Thanks Carol. I like to point out that this was the garage so if anyone has a garage, they can have a similar studio. If I were to build a dream studio, it would have north light, room to teach, a floor to drip paint on and gallery lighting. However, I've been in this garage studio for more than 20 years and am grateful for a warm dry place.

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  5. Thanks for showing your studio! Looks really comfortable! I too, am a fan of moving furniture around. My friends think I am crazy, but it really does make it feel like a new place when you move things around and clean up!

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  6. Hi Nancy,
    Yes, I figure if you are going to move something to clean behind it anyway, you may as well just move to to another location. Glad to hear you can relate. Now, if I just room for a couch it would really be comfortable but I would probably get less painting done.

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