We’ve been staying at our friend’s cabin which is situated about three hundred meters to the West of Twin Eagles Bluff. It’s been so convenient to have a place to stay this winter while we are getting the bluff set up for the summer, that it’s hard to quantify our gratitude. It’s allowed us to complete a large number of projects on the property, and continue the cleanup and organization needed before the house construction starts this summer. With the ramp down to the ocean nearing completion, we will have easy access to the slope of the bluff and the area at the bottom by the ocean. This will provide us with endless projects over the summer cleaning up the bluff and making the beach a little hidden paradise.
Despite all this outdoor activity, I’ve also been able to complete one or two new paintings every month since we’ve been camped-out in our friend’s cabin. I thought it would be interesting to document how I’ve managed to setup an artist studio in a very small space. I’ll have a much bigger studio setup in the new house, but for the time being this is working quite well (and I’ve managed to avoid driving Mitch crazy).
I’ve learned that with nothing more than a couple of TV tray tables, a small table top easel and a speedy setup/breakdown routine, I can have a reasonably functional studio space. The only limit is the size of the canvas. If it’s too big, I can’t stabilize it while I’m painting. This limit seems to be about 16″ – 20″ on a canvas (with cradled wood panel, I can go a little bit bigger as long as it doesn’t tip the easel over). With a little practice, I can now do setup or breakdown in under a minute. I store all my supplies on a couple of shelves of the bookcase and the TV trays go back into their corner when they’re not being used. I’m sure I’ll look back and romanticize that time when I was painting little paintings in a little cabin by the sea.