Favorite Art Supplies and Cinequest Film Festival

I thought I would share my favorite art supplies since I will be live painting at Cinequest Film Festival as of... TODAY! You may see me using some of these materials if you come by Camera 12 Cinemas, where I will be painting in the windows, alongside artists Mike Borja and Denis Korkh.

A few things about this event. Each artist will be painting over the course of 10 days, from February 25th-March 6th. We each have a blank 4' x 6' canvas and an easel. The live painting is also a contest and you can vote for your favorite painting. A stipend for supplies was set up for each of us at University Art Center. I went yesterday to get my materials so I can get started today. The live painting event will culminate at the Filmmaker Awards Ceremony on March 7th, where the artists will be acknowledged and the winner announced.

I never paint in front of other people. Sure, when I was in school I had to or when I sketch in public or get together with a small group of artists, but not as a focal point in a window in front of strangers. That's one of the reasons why I decided to do it, because it sort of freaks me out. Also, it will be on a 4' x 6' canvas and I have been working on smaller paper and wood for the last 5 years. Going back to canvas should be interesting. I will be getting rid of the tooth of the canvas by applying gesso and sanding down the surface until it is more like working on wood or masonite. This was a technique I learned in art school and formerly used.

I learned so much about art supplies and techniques while in school. I made my own artist books (hand bound, typed or screen printed text, screen print or lithograph images inside), learned how to prepare surfaces to work on, learned printmaking (lithography, screen printing, mono printing), encaustic, ceramic sculpture, plastic mould-making, jewelry (casting, welding), aluminum and steel wire sculptures. I learned how to use graphite powder, charcoal, pastels, oil pastels, inks, watercolor, acrylic, oil paint. It was great to learn how to use these materials and then decide what I liked and didn't like. I have found myself moving between different materials and techniques, but I have also found myself keeping it simple. 

I was frequently an oil painter in school and out, but moved away from it because of the toxicity when you don't have proper ventilation. When I did paint with oils, my professors always tried to get me to apply more paint, but I continued to paint thin layers. I just never liked an impasto or thick surface for my own work. That's why I was drawn to screen printing, lithography, watercolor and ink. You have to create any depth through thin layers. In my last year of school, I focused on screen printing and mixed media work for my graduation show, using a specially mixed gesso surface on wood with graphite, charcoal and FW Artists' Acrylic Inks. 

My block printed thank you notes sent with every purchase.

One technique I did not learn in school was block printing. I carve and print blocks  for artwork and for the thank you notes I send to customers with their purchases. 

For the Cinequest live painting event, I think I will be using acrylic paint. I thought about oils, but I'm not sure how happy movie-goers will be with that smell and it may have been way too long since I've used them. These days, although I have been using gouache and watercolor frequently, I still regularly use acrylic paint for portrait commissions. I will be bringing watercolor and gouache to sketch while I am there as well.

Materials I Love:

Paint 

• Yasutomo Waterproof Liquid Sumi Ink
• Gouache - a variety of brands I have collected over the years
• Watercolor - a variety of brands I have collected over the years
• Sennelier French Artists' Watercolor (a recent gift from my mom)
• Liquitex and sometimes Golden acrylic paint

Brushes

• Cheap Princeton Snap! brushes from The Aresenal 
• A random variety of brushes I've had for years, cheap to expensive

Supports

• Paper - Arches watercolor paper for watercolor, gouache and Sumi ink, BFKRives printmaking paper for Sumi ink and block printing
• Wood - salvaged or recycled wood. The weird sizes and odd shapes make me think up creative ideas. Also, the variety of wood is always fun to work with.
• A damn good sketchbook that allows me to use dry or wet media. Lately, I love my Kunst & Papier binder board sketchbook. It's acid-free and you can decorate the cover. 

Other

• A heap of rags
• Masking tape
• Milan gigante eraser - I've had this giant eraser since art school! That's about a decade. I have two small pieces of it left. Get one. You won't regret it.
• My Talenti Gelato water cup (pistachio, of course!). I love that I can tighten it closed and take it with me on the road.
• My favorite pencil sharpener I bought in Maine many years ago
• Palette
• Salt and rubbing alcohol for cool effects with watercolors

Blank new canvas for Cinequest. 

This Week's Progress on the Home Studio

Last week, I did a Rooftop Cleanup to allow more light and clean the roof of the new studio space. The corrugated plastic has multiple cracks in it, so it will have to be replaced. I did the math and it looks to cost $159 + tax. This week I have worked on cleaning up the area below it. It's amazing how huge the space looks now that all that junk is gone. I really have no idea what I'm doing, but it's really fun to just clean everything up and dream about what I could do.

New problems

When I headed out back today, I noticed two fence panels had toppled back onto the neighbor's land. I think the new fence needs to come sooner than later!

This is the SECOND pile of stuff that had to go.

Everything in the back was water damaged, rusty or just nasty. Except for the cooler, everything is going. There were even two fenders back there from a prior tenant. See those bags of cement? They actually became cement from the rain earlier this month. Lots of rusty nails, rusty screws, PVC pipe, rusty tools, rusty razor blades, gross tape and other weirdness. Good riddance to this stuff!

In cleaning out the back, it made me realize I wanted to trim down my other belongings as well. I have decent-sized collections of records, books and art supplies. This all adds up. Not to mention a couple boxes of childhood toys and mementos. I also had a lot of clothes. 

Look at all those empty hangers!

I have been reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo. Her approach is to touch everything you own, rather than just look at it when sorting. She thinks you should focus on what you want to keep, not on what you are getting rid of. Marie's method is different from a lot of approaches because rather than room by room or in small bits, she wants you to go through EVERYTHING  and by category, pulling every item within each category. You start with clothes, then books, papers, komono (miscellany - CDs, DVDs, electrical cords, kitchen goods, and on and on) then you move on to sentimental items last. By focusing on clothes first (she calls these the least sentimental), it makes it easier to move through each category. I am not that great at following things exactly, but so far, I have gone through clothes and books and it feels really great. 

So clean now! 

Anyway, back to the space. Look at it now! So much cleaner than when I started! You can see before photos in the Art Studio Move post. I think I can clear out my studio in two more trips (mostly because of the furniture and large art). I have been thinking about the design of the studio. I want it to be a lean to. I would like the corrugated roof to stay to allow a lot of light in. I also want walls on three sides and a door on one side to enter. This project is going to take some time. I don't expect to be done with it until at least summer.  For the time being, I am going to work on the table on the back patio and use the office inside for shipping, photo scanning and editing. The space in back will be for supplies and I can work back there, but I will have to bring art projects on paper inside each day since the overnight moisture in the air will cause the paper to buckle. 

I am so into getting rid of all this stuff. I know it will allow me to focus way more on things I want to be doing without all this junk to think about in the back of my mind. 

Next steps: 

• Move my art desk, shelf, chairs and large artworks back from the studio (still need to sort through)
• Organize art supplies on shelf
• Hang pegboard for tools
• Purchase a flat file
• Talk to the neighbors about their invasive trees and vines (that are ruining the fence)
• Level the foundation (there's a giant root under one of the concrete panels)
• Replace the corrugated roof

Rooftop Cleanup

Ok, so this is probably not the most exciting post, but I wanted to show you how hard I worked yesterday afternoon. My main mission was to clean the corrugated plastic roof in the back and sweep the roof of our tenant's building. I wanted to clean the corrugated roof so I could let it as much light as possible for the work area. It was covered with dirt, leaves and branches.

Before I climbed up on the roof, I caught a Georgia O'Keeffe-like image with the ladder, blue sky and adobe feel.  It reminded me of New Mexico.

A two broom job.

See that blackness beyond the brooms on the corrugated roof? That's the caked up dirt and branches I needed to clean. I wish I took a proper before picture, but the whole thing was covered. I must say, sweeping is one of my favorite activities. It is so satisfying and meditative. I listed to Jessica Pratt as I swept my heart out. 

When I climbed up, it was during the late afternoon, the golden hour and then sunset. It was so nice to watch the afternoon turn to evening from here. I want to come back up and sketch sometime.

My little shadow sweeping.

You can see the progress I was making here. I pushed all the debris to the edge of the roof and then used a hose to deeper clean. 

The north view. 

I love that there's still an empty lot behind us. I like seeing the piles of wood, old truck and weeds. I pretend I live in the country sometimes. Here, you can see how clean I got the corrugated roof. Sure, it's not pristine, but as clean as I could get it with the hose. I may hop back up for one more pass. I like how the corrugated texture mirrors the awesome textured garage wall next door. 

You can see how bright the roof is now!

There's a lot more light now. A few areas of the corrugated plastic need mending since they leak, but it's not in bad shape. All that stuff on the shelves still needs to be gone through. Let me tell you, I have seen some black widows and boxes full of tetanus nails. Thankfully, no animal carcasses so far. It felt like such good progress today. I can't tell you how big this space looks now! It's amazing how claustrophobic rotten piles of wood, leaves and junk can make a space. 

I feel like we should build a little balcony up here so we can watch the sunset. 

The next steps will be to:

• Further clean the side of the house and cut back an awful, thorny vine that's been sneaking in from the neighbor's yard.
• Clean up the built-in work bench (throw out rusty nails, old cans of paint, rotten wood)
• Sweep or hose down underneath the roof and workbench to start with a really clean work area

You can read my first post in this series, Art Studio Move, for a more complete list of what I plan on doing. I will be putting all posts related to this in the Home Art Studio Project category if you want to follow along. 

I won't post any pictures until I get the above list done, but here are some sketches of what I think it will look like when I'm done cleaning.

Art Studio Move

It was a tough decision to make, but I decided to move out of my art studio space and make a new one at home. One of the biggest reasons is the studio has been taken over by more musicians than visual artists lately and I if you are going to have an art studio, you may as well have other visual artists around, right? It's always great to bounce ideas off each other and just have that camaraderie.  At the current studio, I formerly had access to the alleyway to shoot photos or let projects dry and now it's a driveway. The bathroom is a lot cleaner at my house. I have also found myself working at home more frequently than at the studio. I have a fridge full of good, fresh food here and space to be outdoors. The weather in California is nice enough to work outside so I often set up on the covered patio in the backyard. The power tools are here, cats are here, it's easier to care for the garden and who really wants to leave their house anyway?!

Of course I have to justify it because the studio has been my favorite spot for 4 years. It has an awesome brick wall and a huge storefront window. It was home for the last four years, but I think it's time to move on. 

 I have been dreaming of using this space as a studio workshop. It has a bench and storage, opaque corrugated roof that lets in lots of light and at 16' x 7'9", it beats my 10x9 size studio any day. It also has electricity. This is my new pet project.

A little rough around the edges

As you can see, there is a lot of work to do. Old, rotten pieces of wood, home maintenance materials and just filth. This space is behind the cottage in the back (where we have a tenant). 

So much stuff!

There's a lot of random stuff back here: a bike, a scooter, plant cemetery, dried cans of paint, a door, etc. You may not be able to tell here, but the foundation is uneven as well. That's something I can deal with and worry about later. It will be a big undertaking, but I think totally worth it.  If we can make it waterproof, give it some decent walls, it would make a great space for woodworking  and bigger projects. 

Piles, just piles

Do you see those shadows on the roof? I need to get up on the roof of the building and sweep the leaves off to let in more light. The above roof will be temporary since we need a new fence and the roof will need to be replaced when the fence does. 

See this wood? I already cleared it out!

Lots of wood that has been getting wet for a few years. I moved all of this to the front part of the yard to an area piled with stuff ready for the dump. You can see the sad state of the fence here. 

The north-facing view.

The new studio view. My current studio looks out on cars on a busy street, a big van and trailer that always blocks my view,  plus has an ugly industrial fence in front of the window. I think I like this view a lot better. Isn't that wall amazing? I love that peeled paint and boarded up window.

I can hang out with this guy and my other cat more often. 

In moving my art studio home, I know I will be working in different places. The printing/shipping area will be in the office inside and I will likely spend a lot of time painting on the table below since it is more out in the open. 

Laura and Elissa

Recently, I had a couple of friends over to paint together. The backyard made a really nice setting and it got me thinking I can not only have artists over to make stuff, but run workshops back here. I am really excited for this change. You can see some of my big ideas on this Dream Home Art Studio Pinterest Board and be sure to check back on the Home Art Studio Project blog category frequently.

The short list:

• Sweep rooftop  DONE!
• Waterproof rooftop
• Remove all old tools (rusted), old paint and random things that don't belong
• Install pegboard on the wall (maybe - I have a love/hate relationship with pegboard)
• Fix or sell the bike
• Fix the scooter
• Build a wall and new fence
• Replace or level the concrete (there's a big old root that's pushing it up)
• Get a flat file for the office space inside (have my friend weld a frame for it to sit on)

The rest of the yard

• Repaint the metal frame of the table and chairs on the patio
• Buy new cushions for the seats
• Put better lighting in on the covered patio 
• Build a fire pit with seating
• Buy more California native or drought-hardy plants
• Especially large plants that will provide privacy
• Get the spring food garden going

New Painting: Dinner Party

Lately, I have been working on a new gouache dinner party painting. It's for an art show with the theme of food and love at Studios on the Park in Paso Robles. Since I love food, I had plenty of ideas for the show. The one idea I knew I was going to carry out was a dinner party viewed from above. I equate food and love with cooking and eating with those dear to me. I wanted the painting to feel personal, yet relatable to others. The final painting combines two memorable meals: a dinner party I hosted with 7 others and a spontaneous dinner in Cadiz, Spain. I'll explain in further detail, but let's start at the beginning. 

I knew I wanted the table to take up the whole composition. I knew I wanted a table runner so I added that early. After I had some of the bowls and plates drawn in, I photographed some models (myself and Bryan) to get the hand gestures right. 

Bryan modeling. He was so ready and willing!

Bryan made a great model. I shot him from above my home work area. You can see I was antsy to lay down some paint, so I started painting in the wood salad bowl and servers.  

Using myself as a hand model.

I had a lot of figuring out to do. After I realized I wanted to reflect a specific dinner party with myself and 7 friends (4 couples) I had to include 8 people eating at the table (4 women, 4 men). Painting a dinner party created some challenges. Had dinner started already? Were they on the first, second helping? What is each person doing? Eating, drinking, pouring, serving, slicing. I had to create a little scenario for each person at the table. The initial sketch took a little time to plan out. It wasn't highly detailed, but I did have to lay in the hand positions, plates and bowls. 

I was again antsy to get some details in so I started working on the food. I decided to darken the wood grain so the table runner and other details would stand out. You can see here how I taped the watercolor paper to a scrappy piece of foam core. I often write notes in the tape. I noted whether they were male or female and what might be on their plates. I also had to think of where their knives and forks were: resting on their plate, in their hand, etc. 

Here you can see I removed the napkins next to the plates that I had in the initial sketch. As I worked, I realized if they were eating dinner, the napkins would be on their laps. I really wanted to show the napkins because I thought the rectangular shape next to the plate would make it more interesting, but I did want to keep it realistic so they were left out. 

Plaza Mentidero locals

I mentioned the two memorable meals that inspired this painting. The dinner party I had at my house with seven good friends (more than a friend Bryan, Anabella, Cortez, Nate, Lucia, Dave and Misa) and a meal in Cádiz, Spain. In Spain, between my apartment and art studio was La Plaza del Mentidero. Although Cádiz has many plazas, this one was really special to me since not only was it convenient, but the restaurant owners quickly began to know me as I popped in for tapas or walked by and said hello. Two particular restaurants were my favorite: Mmmm! and La Mentirosa. They were across the plaza from one another and the cooks and owners were good friends. One night when I was at Mmmm! (often called Silvio's, since he was the owner), the cooks and servers came over with a pan of fish and potatoes. I was sitting by myself in the corner and they made me come over and join them. They were such a generous group, so welcoming and kind even though I had only been there for a month. 

Here is my version of the pan of fish and potatoes, to reflect the meal in Cádiz. I love the way the fish came out with the tail hanging off the plate, simple lines to shape it and the shadow. It is my favorite way to paint: intuitively and without thinking, diving in and doing what feels right. I used some cross hatching, a technique I have not used for awhile.

When I'm not working in my studio, I paint at home. When I paint at home, my cat Oscar inevitably walks across my paintings. 

The final dinner party painting. 

You can see the different personalities and appetites here. For example, the woman at the lower left corner is a vegetarian. I wanted it to feel somewhere between the first serving and second and the fish just came off the grill. Everyone either has their mouth full or they are talking and laughing. 

I still have other food painting ideas. Like the time a group of friends and I hiked up to Mission Peak on a full moon and picnicked at the top. Or when my dad makes arroz con pollo or gallo pinto. Or when my mom would make tea and snacks for us in the garage on rainy days when we were kids. 

What's a memorable food experience you've had? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.