Apartment Studio

I am pleased to share that after an almost four-month hiatus from working in the studio, I was finally able to start painting again! I moved the last bit of my studio over to the apartment. This included my smaller Pochade box, tripod and traveling painting cart. To protect the carpet, I picked up a clear plastic mat, like the kind you’d see in an office under a desk. The cart, paint box and a chair all fit nicely on the mat, so I don’t have to worry (much) about accidental paint splatters if a brush slips!

After moving the mini studio around the apartment, a couple of times, I settled on a location by the balcony window. It was wonderful getting back into the swing of things. I still had several references to work from, although I could use some more imagery on file. I will make a point of taking some more photographs the next time I’m in Palisade, or if I’m able to catch a beautiful sunset from the balcony perhaps I can use that as well.

Reference image decided upon, I sketched a thumbnail to help me edit the image down and contemplated my palette. My studio library is also packed and in storage which means all my reference books on landscape painting are not accessible, so I had to rely on memory as far as process goes. Turns out, I still have my painting mojo and had nothing to worry about!

I decided on a limited palette of Portland gray light, medium and dark, ultramarine violet, brilliant yellow pale, lemon yellow, Montserrat orange, and Titanium white. I started by placing all the light values (pale yellows and oranges mixed with a bit of white), then I moved to the darkest values (Portland gray medium and dark with a touch of violet mixed in) and then moved onto the mid tones of Portland light and medium with again a hint of violet and white to soften the transition from the various gray values. Once I had everything mapped out on the gessoed paper I moved around the composition further softening the transition from the sunset areas to the heavy clouds, pushing the brightest lights and pulling the orange hues through the gray to show the atmospheric effect of the rain and sunset. 

Overall, I’m happy with the result and even more please to be painting again! I do need to pay attention to the time of day I work, as the lighting in the space is primarily natural so if I wait too long, I will lose the light and find myself painting in the dark or even worse, unnatural lighting from the lamps in the apartment; the later will alter the colors of the paint on the palette as well as on the canvas, or in my case paper. But that aside, this just shows that one can carve out a studio space no matter how small your living arrangements!